Cebes then asked him, "What do you mean, Socrates, by saying that it is
not lawful to commit violence on one's self, but that a philosopher
should be willing to follow one who is dying?"

14. "What, Cebes! have not you and Simmias, who have conversed
familiarly with Philolaus[26] on this subject, heard?"

"Nothing very clearly, Socrates."

"I, however, speak only from hearsay; what, then, I have heard I have no
scruple in telling. And perhaps it is most becoming for one who is about
to travel there to inquire and speculate about the journey thither, what
kind we think it is. What else can one do in the interval before
sunset?"

"Why, then, Socrates, do they say that it is not allowable to kill one's
self? for I, as you asked just now, have heard both Philolaus, when he
lived with us, and several others, say that it was not right to do this;
but I never heard any thing clear upon the subject from any one."

15. "Then, you should consider it attentively," said Socrates, "for
perhaps you may hear. Probably, however, it will appear wonderful to
you, if this alone, of all other things, is a universal truth,[27] and
it never happens to a man, as is the case in all other things, that at
some times and to some persons only it is better to die than to live;
yet that these men for whom it is better to die--this probably will
appear wonderful to you--may not without impiety do this good to
themselves, but must await another benefactor."