Sayings of Socrates 24

If I had engaged in politics, I should have perished long ago and done no good to either you or to myself. . . . for the truth is that no man who goes to war with you or any other multitude, honestly struggling against the commission of unrighteousness and wrong in the State, will save his life; he who will really fight for right, if he would live even for a little while, must have a private station and not a public one.

—Plato, Apology 31e