Aeschylus Quotes
Aeschylus shares solemn thoughts on honor and loyalty that feel like timeless moral lessons.
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His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.
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I would far rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evil.
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'Reverence for parents' stands written among the three laws of most revered righteousness.
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Innumerable twinkling of the waves of the sea.
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For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.
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Variant:In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.
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Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.
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For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life.
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Time waxing old can many a lesson teach.
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God's mouth knows not how to speak falsehood, but he brings to pass every word.
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On me the tempest falls. It does not make me tremble. O holy Mother Earth, O air and sun, behold me. I am wronged.
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I pray the gods will give me some relief And end this weary job. One long full year I've been lying here, on this rooftop, The palace of the sons of Atreus, Resting on my arms, just like a dog. I've come to know the night sky, every star, The powers we see glittering in the sky, Bringing winter and summer to us all, As the constellations rise and sink.
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A great ox stands on my tongue.
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Wisdom comes through suffering. Trouble, with its memories of pain, Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep, So men against their will Learn to practice moderation. Favours come to us from gods.
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She [Helen] brought to Ilium her dowry, destruction.
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It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
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Only when man's life comes to its end in prosperity can one call that man happy.
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Oh me, I have been struck a mortal blow right inside.
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Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny.
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Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?
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I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
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Good fortune is a god among men, and more than a god.
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Destiny waits alike for the free man as well as for him enslaved by another's might.
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For a deadly blow let him pay with a deadly blow; it is for him who has done a deed to suffer.
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What is pleasanter than the tie of host and guest?
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Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen.
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Every ruler is harsh whose laws is new.
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God is not averse to deceit in a holy cause.
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God loves to help him who strives to help himself.
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Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.
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He who goes unenvied shall not be admired.
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I think the slain care little if they sleep or rise again.
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In war, truth is the first casualty.
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It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.
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It is always in season for old men to learn.
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It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.
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It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.
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It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.
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Necessity is stronger far than art.
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So, in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, 'With our own feathers, not by others' hand Are we now smitten.'
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The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder.
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The reward of suffering is experience.
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The wisest of the wise may err.
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There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls.
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There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.
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To be fortunate is God, and more than God to mortals.
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To be free from evil thoughts is God's best gift.
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When a match has equal partners then I fear not.
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Who, except the gods, can live time through forever without any pain?
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Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
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In few men is it part of nature to respect a friend's prosperity without begrudging him.
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May dawn, as the proverb goes, bring happy tidings coming from her mother night.
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In visions of the night, like dropping rain, Descend the many memories of pain.
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The cure is in the house, not brought by other hands from distant places, but by its own, in agony and blood.
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The tongue of slander is too prompt with wanton malice to wound the stranger.
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The holy heaven yearns to wound the earth, and yearning layeth hold on the earth to join in wedlock; the rain, fallen from the amorous heaven, impregnates the earth, and it bringeth forth for mankind the food of flocks and herds and Demeter's gifts; and from that moist marriage-rite the woods put on their bloom.
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God planteth in mortal men the cause of sin whensoever he wills utterly to destroy a house.
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Human prosperity never rests but always craves more, till blown up with pride it totters and falls. From the opulent mansions pointed at by all passers-by none warns it away, none cries, 'Let no more riches enter!'.
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Hungry wailing standeth not aloof.
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For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.
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And one who is just of his own free will shall not lack for happiness; and he will never come to utter ruin.
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The moving light, rejoicing in its strength, Sped from the pyre of pine, and urged its way, In golden glory, like some strange new sun...
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I know how men in exile feed on dreams.
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The field of doom bears death as its harvest.
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The words of truth are simple.
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Old men are always young enough to learn with profit.
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Report uttered by the people is everywhere of great power.
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The great and amorous sky curved over the earth, and lay upon her as a pure lover. The rain, the humid flux descending from heaven for both man and animal, for both thick and strong, germinated the wheat, swelled the furrows with fecund mud and brought forth the buds in the orchards. And it is I who empowered these moist espousals, I the great Aphrodite …
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To learn is to be young, however old.
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Who apart from the gods is without pain for his whole lifetime's length?