The main thing I’ve derived from all of this is his belief is that what he held dear in terms of freedom (and his love of country and its intended purposes) drove him to consider the source of freedom, and he believed that it came from God, that man can only protect and defend it. He justified what he believed with a socratic style interaction with his students, effectively causing healthy discussion among many of the young. In many ways it reminds me of what we know about Socrates and how he angered the teachers of his time by causing the students to question the rhetoric. In the end Athens put him to death for that.

