Though his disciple Plato always made strenuous efforts to point out that Socrates was no sophist, there were times when his challenges to common sense came very close to the pointless wordplay he so opposed. Plato's book 'The Symposium', about a drunken dinner party, is one of the most famous Ancient Greek books about love, romance and friendship, and records just such an incident.

During the party a handsome but very vain young man named Alcibiades does his best to win compliments from the wisest man in Athens. Yet despite his fondness for Alcibiades, Socrates ignores him. Instead he demonstrates why, in fact, he is more handsome man:

"My own eyes must be more beautiful, because they bulge out, and therefore I can see better. And by the same account my nose is more beautiful, because my nostrils flare out and so I can therefore gather in more smells."

Unfortunately, the comfortable existence enjoyed by the wealthy men of Athens was about to be shattered.