Quotes by Aeschylus

• Who, except the gods, can live time through forever without any pain?
• By Time and Age full many things are taught.
• From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.
• For this is the mark of a wise and upright man, not to rail against the gods in misfortune.
• 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.
• 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.
• For the impious act begets more after it, like to the parent stock.
• For somehow this disease inheres in tyranny, never to trust one's friends.
• For children preserve the fame of a man after his death.
• For hostile word let hostile word be paid.
• I would rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils.
• Excessive fear is always powerless.
• Everyone's quick to blame the alien.
• Don't you know this, that words are doctors to a diseased temperment?
• Destiny waits alike for the free man as well as for him enslaved by another's might.
• Death is softer by far than tyranny.
• Death is easier than a wretched life; and better never to have born than to live and fare badly.
• Call no man happy till he is dead.
• For know that no one is free, except Zeus.
• I know how men in exile feed on dreams.
• By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water.
• It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.
• It is a light thing for whoever keeps his foot outside trouble to advise and counsel him that suffers.
• In the lack of judgment great harm arises, but one vote cast can set right a house.
• In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.
• If you pour oil and vinegar into the same vessel, you would call them not friends but opponents.
• If a man suffers ill, let it be without shame; for this is the only profit when we are dead. You will never say a good word about deeds that are evil and disgraceful.
• I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship.
• I say you must not win an unjust case by oaths.
• I willingly speak to those who know, but for those who do not know I forget.
• God always strives together with those who strive.
• His resolve is not to seem the bravest, but to be.
• 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.
• He who goes unenvied shall not be admired.
• Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.
• God's most lordly gift to man is decency of mind.
• God loves to help him who strives to help himself.
• God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard.
• I, schooled in misery, know many purifying rites, and I know where speech is proper and where silence.
• What atonement is there for blood spilt upon the earth?
• The man who does ill must suffer ill.
• The man whose authority is recent is always stern.
• The one knowing what is profitable, and not the man knowing many things, is wise.
• The wisest of the wise may err.
• The words of truth are simple.
• There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls.
• There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.
• There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.
• Time as he grows old teaches all things.
• To be free from evil thoughts is God's best gift.
• Too few rejoice at a friend's good fortune.
• The evils of mortals are manifold; nowhere is trouble of the same wing seen.
• When strength is yoked with justice, where is a mightier pair than they?
• A god implants in mortal guilt whenever he wants utterly to confound a house.
• Wisdom comes alone through suffering.
• You have been trapped in the inescapable net of ruin by your own want of sense.
• Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.
• Whoever is new to power is always harsh.
• We must pronounce him fortunate who has ended his life in fair prosperity.
• Whenever a man makes haste, God too hastens with him.
• When a match has equal partners then I fear not.
• When a man's willing and eager the god's join in.
• What is there more kindly than the feeling between host and guest?
• What good is it to live a life that brings pains?
• Time brings all things to pass.
• Who apart from the gods is without pain for his whole lifetime's length?
• But time growing old teaches all things.
• It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
• It is good even for old men to learn wisdom.
• It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.
• It is best for the wise man not to seem wise.
• It is an ill thing to be the first to bring news of ill.
• It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.
• It is always in season for old men to learn.
• Be bold and boast, just like the cock beside the hen.
• Bronze in the mirror of the form, wine of the mind.
• The anvil of justice is planted firm, and fate who makes the sword does the forging in advance.
• And though all streams flow from a single course to cleanse the blood from polluted hand, they hasten on their course in vain.
• To mourn and bewail your ill-fortune, when you will gain a tear from those who listen, this is worth the trouble.
• Alas for the affairs of men! When they are fortunate you might compare them to a shadow; and if they are unfortunate, a wet sponge with one dash wipes the picture away.
• Ah, lives of men! When prosperous they glitter - Like a fair picture; when misfortune comes - A wet sponge at one blow has blurred the painting.
• It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.
• Only when a man's life comes to its end in prosperity dare we pronounce him happy.
• Self-will in the man who does not reckon wisely is by itself the weakest of all things.
• And one who is just of his own free will shall not lack for happiness; and he will never come to utter ruin.
• Justice turns the scale, bringing to some learning through suffering.
• Since long I've held silence a remedy for harm.
• Search well and be wise, nor believe that self-willed pride will ever be better than good counsel.
• Of prosperity mortals can never have enough.
• Of all the gods only death does not desire gifts.
• Obedience is the mother of success and is wedded to safety.
• My friends, whoever has had experience of evils knows how whenever a flood of ills comes upon mortals, a man fears everything; but whenever a divine force cheers on our voyage, then we believe that the same fate will always blow fair.
• Mourn for me rather as living than as dead.
• Know not to revere human things too much.
• Memory is the mother of all wisdom.
• Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise; to all that lies in the middle a god has given excellence.
• Married love between man and woman is bigger than oaths guarded by right of nature.