Aeschylus Quotations | Page 2

It is always the season for the old to learn.

For not many men, the proverb saith, can love a friend whom fortune prospereth unenvying.

. . . it is yours women's to be silent and stay within doors.

Sweet is a grief well ended.

Old men are always young enough to learn with profit.

Pain lays not its touch upon a corpse.

They who prosper take on airs of vanity.

It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.

Nothing forces us to know What we do not want to know Except pain

Only through suffering do we learn

A great ox stands on my tongue.

For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.

We spoil ourselves with scruples long as things go well.

Suffering brings experience.

Rumours voiced by women come to nothing.

[Hermes addresses Prometheus :] To you, the clever and crafty, bitter beyond all bitterness, who has sinned against the gods in bestowing honors upon creatures of a day--to you, thief of fire, I speak.

ATHENA: There are two sides to this dispute. I've heard only one half the argument. (...) So you two parties, summon your witnesses, set out your proofs, with sworn evidence to back your stories. Once I've picked the finest men in Athens, I'll return. They'll rule fairly in this case, bound by a sworn oath to act with justice.

They sent forth men to battle, But no such men return; And home, to claim their welcome, Come ashes in an urn

On me the tempest falls. It does not make me tremble. O holy Mother Earth, O air and sun, behold me. I am wronged.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws is new.

Lustre of man walking proud beneath the sky diminishes to nothing and goes unregarded.

Remember to be submissive, thou art analien, a fugitive, and in need.

Time waxing old can many a lesson teach.

I pray the gods will give me some reliefAnd end this weary job. One long full yearI'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.

Art is far feebler than necessity.

On him who wields power gently, the god looks favorably from afar.

Justice shines in very smoky homes, and honors the righteous; but the gold-spangled mansions where the hands are unclean she leaves with eyes averted.

You shall learn, though late, the lesson of how to be discreet.

May dawn, as the proverb goes, bring happy tidings coming from her mother night.

The unenvied man is not enviable.

It's a man's jobno place for women's plans here!what lies outside. Stay home and cause no trouble.

For by the will of the gods Fate hath held sway since ancient days.

A people's wrath voiced abroad bringeth grave Danger, no less than public curse pronounced.

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.

Truly upon mortals cometh swift of foot their evil and his offence upon him that trespasseth against Right.

Arrogance is truly the child of impiety, but from health of soul comes happiness, dear to all, much prayed for.

But when the dust has drunk the blood of men, no resurrection comes for one who's dead.

To many mortals silence great gain brings.

Words are the parents of a causeless wrath.

No man looks with love on deeds that to the high Gods hateful prove.

But who can describe the overweening pride of men? Or women mad with passion, reckless in their hearts, soulmates to every kind of ruin that befalls us? Wild passion, unrestrained, boundless, that overcomes the women, perverts the yoke of wedlock for beasts and men alike.

You'll see all other mortal sinners, the ones who flout the honor owed to gods or guests, or loving parents--you'll see them get the justice they deserve. For Hades holds men mightily to a strict accounting down below the earth; he sees all things, inscribes them within the book of his remembering.

No one can count the terrors that the earth spawns, catastrophic, gruesome, and the vast arms of the sea swarm with brute monsters bent on harm, and everywhere between the sky and ground lights bloom by day in flares and sudden bolts; and birds and beasts alike can tell of the whirlwind's whirling wrath.

Out of respect, a man must veil his words when talking with a woman, but with a man he can frankly say whatever's on his mind.

I have been schooled by my own suffering: I've learned the many ways of being purged.

Overly persuasive a woman's ordinance spreads far, traveling fast; but fast dying a rumor voiced by a woman perishes.

For Hades is mighty in calling men to account below the earth, and with a mind that records in tablets he surveys all things.

Hungry wailing standeth not aloof.

The will was of Zeus, the hand of Hephaestus.

The saying goes that the gods leave a town once it is captured.

As long as there are men the bulwark is safe.

The reward of pain is experience.

The adulterer dies. An old custom, justice.

I warn the marauder dragging plunder, chaotic, rich beyond all rights: he'll strike his sails, harried at long last, stunned when the squalls of torment break his spars to bits.

Simple is the speech of truth.

It is like a woman indeed To take rapture before the fact is shown for true. They believe too easily, are too quick to shift From ground to ground; and swift indeed The rumor voiced by a woman dies again.

High fortune, this in man's eye is god and more than god is this.

Many men who transgress justice, honor appearance over reality.

Even the old should learn.

Everyone is ready to speak ill of a stranger.

If you will take me as your teacher, you will not kick against the pricks.

Fear hurries on my tongue through want of courage.

The field of doom bears death as its harvest.

Base men who prosper are unenviable.

The best by far is to marry in one's own rank.

Everyone, to those weaker than themselves, is kind.

Be it mine to draw from wisdom's fount, pure as it flows, that calm of soul which virtue only knows.

The laws of a state change with the changing times.

Who holds a power but newly gained is ever stern of mood.

Success! to thee, as to a God, men bend the knee.

From him [Death] alone of all the powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof.

When a man takes the road to destruction, the gods help him along.

Only one accomplishment is beyond both the power and the mercy of the Gods. They cannot make the past as though it had never been.

Ares gives his verdict without witnesses.

If you are not envied, you are not enviable.

Old men are children once again a dream that sways and wavers into the hard light of day.

Many among men are they who set high the show of honor, yet break justice.

For sufferers it is sweet to know before-hand clearly the pain that still remains for them.

He hears but half who hears one party only.

By suffering comes wisdom.

For this our task hath Fate spun without fail to last for ever sure, that we on man weighed down with deeds of hate should follow till the earth his life immure. Nor when he dies can he boast of being truly free.

No bribes. Nothing that passes under the roof of a temple Or under the roof of the mouth, can appease heaven's anger Or deflect its aim.

But still the block of Vengeance firm doth stand, and Fate, as swordsmith, hammers blow on blow.

Wrong must not win by technicalities.

Obstinacy standing alone is the weakest of all things in one whose mind is not possessed by wisdom.

Beyond age, leaf withered, man goes three footed no stronger than a child is, a dream that falters in daylight.

For mortal kind taketh thought only for the day, and hath no more surety than the shadow of smoke.

The cure is in the house, not brought by other hands from distant places, but by its own, in agony and blood.

When the black and mortal blood of man has fallen to the ground ... who then can sing spells to call it back again?

There is a time when fear is good and ought to remain seated as a guardian of the heart.

The gods at will can shape a gladder strain, and from the lamentations at the graveside, a song of triumph may arise.

The man who boldly transgresses, amassing a great heap unjustly--by force, in time, he will strike his sail, when trouble seizes him as the yardarm is splintered. He calls on those who hear nothing and he struggles in the midst of the whirling waters. The god laughs at the hot-headed man, seeing him, who boasted that this would never happen, exhausted by distress without remedy and unable to surmount the cresting wave. He wrecks the happiness of his earlier life on the reef of Justice, and he perishes unwept, unseen.

God planteth in mortal men the cause of sin whensoever he wills utterly to destroy a house.

God's mouth knows not how to speak falsehood, but he brings to pass every word.

Time in his aging overtakes all things alike.

For there below ground sits the Dark God, strong to call men to judgment; he sees all, and writes it in his memory.

Misfortune wandering the same track lights now upon one and now upon another.

For in the voyage of the heart, there is a freight of hatred, and the wind of wrath blows shrill.

To make wail and lament for one's ill fortune, when one will win a tear from the audience, is well worthwhile.

To be fortunate is God, and more than God to mortals.