Xenophon Tradition
The line of Socratic quotation preserved by Xenophon's Memorabilia — a parallel record to Plato's dialogues.
Almost everything we know about Socrates comes from two sources: Plato's dialogues and Xenophon's Memorabilia. Plato's Socrates is the philosophical one whose lines dominate modern quotation. Xenophon's Socrates is a more practical figure — a working teacher of ethics, household management, and civic duty — and the Memorabilia preserves quotations and conversations that appear nowhere in Plato.
The 'Xenophon tradition' is the reminder that a famous figure often has more than one authoritative biographer, and that the version of them that circulates in popular quotation is usually shaped by whichever biographer was more literary. Plato was the greater writer. Xenophon may have been the more literal reporter.
For serious quotation of Socrates — and of any figure whose words survive only through others — the responsible practice is to name the source. 'Socrates, as reported by Xenophon' and 'Socrates, as dramatised by Plato' are not the same citation, and blending them silently produces a Socrates who never quite existed.
“The sweetest of all sounds is praise.”
Keep reading the glossary
The original record of a quote — the book, letter, speech, or recording in which it first appeared.
A 2,000-year-old practice of distilling ethical instruction into short, repeatable lines.
The act of naming the original speaker or writer of a quote.
The layered citation tradition of Jewish religious literature — quote upon quote upon quote.