Aeschylus Quotes

He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

In war, truth is the first casualty.

Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.

There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.

Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?

It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.

Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.

The air is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven, Zeus all that is, and what transcends them all.

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.

By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water.

I have learned to hate all traitors, and there is no disease that I spit on more than treachery.

Few men have the natural strength to honor a friend's success without envy.

It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.

Wrong must not win by technicalities.

Married love between man and woman is bigger than oaths guarded by right of nature.

ATHENA: You wish to be called righteous rather than act right. [...] I say, wrong must not win by technicalities.

My will is mine...I shall not make it soft for you.

God's most lordly gift to man is decency of mind.

Call no man happy till he is dead.

Base men who prosper are unenviable.

From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.

Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering.

For know that no one is free, except Zeus.

It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.

Only through suffering do we learn

Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.

For the lips of Zeus do not know how to lie, but bring to fulfilment every word.

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.

God always strives together with those who strive.

Wisdom comes alone through suffering.

It is best for the wise man not to seem wise.

God loves to help him who strives to help himself.

There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls.

Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery.

When a man's willing and eager the god's join in.

There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.

But when once the earth has sucked up a dead man's blood, there is no way to raise him up.

Whoever is just willingly and without compulsion will not lack happiness; he will never be utterly destroyed.

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' hands, Are we now smitten.

Memory is the mother of all wisdom.

For the poison of hatred seated near the heart doubles the burden for the one who suffers the disease; he is burdened with his own sorrow, and groans on seeing another's happiness.

The act of evil breeds others to follow, young sins in its own likeness.

Neither a life of anarchy nor a life under a despot should you praise. To all that lies in the middle has a god given excellence.

Of all the gods only death does not desire gifts.

Time, waxing old, doth all things purify.

Whoever is new to power is always harsh.

The tongue of slander is too prompt with wanton malice to wound the stranger.

Time brings all things to pass.

To learn is to be young, however old.

In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.