Hesiod Quotations

Happy is the man whom the Muses love: sweet speech flows from his mouth.

Often even a whole city suffers for a bad man who sins and contrives presumptuous deeds.

Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.

Badness you can get easily, in quantity; the road is smooth, and it lies close by, But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it.

It will not always be summer: build barns.

Whoever, fleeing marriage and the sorrows that women cause, does not wish to wed comes to a deadly old age.

For a man wins nothing better than a good wife, and then again nothing deadlier than a bad one.

So the people will pay the penalty for their kings' presumption, who, by devising evil, turn justice from her path with tortuous speech.

Whoever has trusted a woman has trusted deceivers.

It is not possible either to trick or escape the mind of Zeus.

Preserve the mean; the opportune moment is best in all things.

He fashions evil for himself who does evil to another, and an evil plan does mischief to the planner.

A day is sometimes our mother, sometimes our stepmother.

The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.

Potter is jealous of potter, and craftsman of craftsman; and the poor have a grudge against the poor, and the poet against the poet.

Wealth should not be seized, but the god-given is much better.

Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the larger the load, the greater will be the profit upon profit.

Whoever happens to give birth to mischievous children lives always with unending grief in his spirit and heart.

Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you; she is after your barn.

A bad neighbor is as great a calamity as a good one is a great advantage.

It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy.

The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest.

We know how to speak many falsehoods that resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.

Bring a wife home to your house when you are of the right age, not far short of 30 years, nor much above this is the right time for marriage.

But they who give straight judgements to strangers and to those of the land and do not transgress what is just, for them the city flourishes and its people prosper.

Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things the most important factor.

When you deal with your brother, be pleasant, but get a witness.

Never make a companion equal to a brother.

If you add a little to a little, and then do it again, soon that little shall be much.

Justice prevails over transgression when she comes to the end of the race.

Toil is no source of shame; idleness is shame.

Try to take for a mate a person of your own neighborhood.

At the beginning of the cask and the end take thy fill but be saving in the middle; for at the bottom the savings comes too late.

Do not gain basely; base gain is equal to ruin.

For both faith and want of faith have destroyed men alike.

He is senseless who would match himself against a stronger man; for he is deprived of victory and adds suffering to disgrace.

How easily some light report is set about, but how difficult to bear.

If you should put even a little on a little and should do this often, soon this would become big.

False shame accompanies a man that is poor, shame that either harms a man greatly or profits him; shame is with poverty, but confidence with wealth.

Giving is good, but taking is bad and brings death.

Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.

Inhibition is no good provider for a needy man, Inhibition, which does men great harm and great good. Inhibition attaches to poverty, boldness to wealth.

Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses.

The artist envies what the arties gains, The bard the rival bard's successful strains.

No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it, too, is a kind of divinity.

Gain not base gains; base gains are the same as losses.

Labor is no disgrace.

Neither make thy friend equal to a brother; but if thou shalt have made him so, be not the first to do him wrong.

Invite your friend to dinner; have nothing to do with your enemy.

No whispered rumours which the many spread can wholly perish.

Night, having Sleep, the brother of Death.

A man fashions ill for himself who fashions ill for another, and the ill design is most ill for the designer.

Love, who is most beautiful among the immortal gods, the melter of limbs, overwhelms in their hearts the intelligence and wise counsel of all gods and all men.

Inhibition is no good provider for a needy man

The ill design is most ill for the designer.

Potter is piqued with potter, joiner with joiner, beggar begrudges beggar, and singer singer.

The Gods rank work above virtues.

And the evil wish is most evil to the wisher.

Do not let any sweet-talking woman beguile your good sense with the fascinations of her shape. It's your barn she's after.

Potter is potter's enemy, and craftsman is craftsman's rival; tramp is jealous of tramp, and singer of singer.

An income means life to wretched mortals, but it is a terrible fate to die among the waves.

The fool learns by suffering.

Long exercise, my friend, inures the mind; And what we once disliked we pleasing find.

He's only harming himself who's bent upon harming another

That man is best who sees the truth himself. Good too is he who listens to wise counsel. But who is neither wise himself nor willing to ponder wisdom is not worth a straw.

...Perses, hear me out on justice, and take what I have to say to heart; cease thinking of violence. For the son of Kronos, Zeus, has ordained this law to men: that fishes and wild beasts and winged birds should devour one another, since there is no justice in them; but to mankind he gave justice which proves for the best.

Timeliness is best in all matters.

Do not seek dishonest gains: dishonest gains are losses.

The dawn speeds a man on his journey, and speeds him too in his work.

Badness you can get easily, in quantity. The road is smooth and lies close by. But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to do it, and rough at first. But when you come to the top, then it is easy, even though it is hard.

Love those who love you, help those you help you, and give to those who give to you.

Money is life to us wretched mortals.

No day is wholly unproductive of good.

Keep adding little by little and it will become a big heap.

In the race for wealth, a neighbor tries to outdo his neighbor, but this strife is good for men. For the potter envies potter, and the carpenter the carpenter, and the beggar rivals the beggar, and the singer the singer.

Do not put all your goods in hollow ships.

Drink your fill when the jar is first opened, and when it is nearly done, but be sparing when it is half-empty; it's a poor savingwhen you come to the dregs.

A sparing tongue is the greatest treasure among men.

The man who procrastinates is always struggling with misfortunes.

Do not get a name as overly lavish or too inhospitable.

For now indeed is the race of iron; and men never cease from labour and sorrow by day and from perishing by night.

And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men too, when they, at their birth, have grey hair on their temples.

The potter is at enmity with the potter.

Evil can be got very easily and exists in quantity: the road to her is very smooth, and she lives near by. But between us and virtue the gods have placed the sweat of our brows; the road to her is long and steep, and it is rough at first; but when a man has reached the top, then she is easy to attain, although before she was hard.

Fools, they do not even know how much more is the half than the whole.

This man, I say, is most perfect who shall have understood everything for himself, after having devised what may be best afterward and unto the end.

Invite the man that loves thee to a feast, but let alone thine enemy.

Let the price fixed with a friend be sufficient, and even dealing with a brother call in witnesses, but laughingly.

The best man of all is he who knows everything himself. Good also the man who accepts another's sound advice; but the man who neither knows himself nor takes to hear what another says, he is no good at all.

Best is the man who thinks for himself.

An evil plan does mischief to the planner.

There is also an evil report; light, indeed, and easy to raise, but difficult to carry, and still more difficult to get rid of.

Aegis-bearing Zeus has a design for each occasion, and mortals find this hard to comprehend.

Hunger is an altogether fit companion for the idle man.

Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus

Acquisition means life to miserable mortals.

The fool knows after he has suffered.

He is a fool who tries to match his strength with the stronger.

Gossip and rumor are evil; easy to lift up, heavy to carry, and hard to put down again.

The half is greater than the whole.