"A man's character is his fate."
—Heraclitus, Greek philosopher (540 BC-480 BC)
We are the sum of the choices we make. And nobody knew this more than Socrates, who lived and died for Reason. At the age of 70, he was accused, tried, and convicted of corrupting the youth (teaching them to think) and challenging the status quo (making "important" people look incompetent). On the morning of his execution his friend Crito visited him in jail and offered him a chance to escape. Socrates declined on the basis of Reason: "I am and always have been one of those natures who must be guided by reason, whatever the reason may be which upon reflection appears to me to be the best; and now that this fortune has come upon me, I can not put away the reason which I have before given: the principles which I have hitherto honored and revered I still honor."* Socrates loved the people, laws, and land of Greece more than any other place in the world—including the imperfections. If he was willing to abide by the laws before his condemnation, logic instructed that these same laws should be respected when he was sentenced to death. He was executed that same evening.
