Quotes by Hesiod

• 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.
• Do not gain basely; base gain is equal to ruin.
• Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you; she is after your barn.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• For a man wins nothing better than a good wife, and then again nothing deadlier than a bad one.
• Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things the most important factor.
• Never make a companion equal to a brother.
• For both faith and want of faith have destroyed men alike.
• Justice prevails over transgression when she comes to the end of the race.
• Whoever, fleeing marriage and the sorrows that women cause, does not wish to wed comes to a deadly old age.
• It is not possible either to trick or escape the mind of Zeus.
• It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy.
• If you should put even a little on a little and should do this often, soon this would become big.
• If you add a little to a little, and then do it again, soon that little shall be much.
• How easily some light report is set about, but how difficult to bear.
• He is senseless who would match himself against a stronger man; for he is deprived of victory and adds suffering to disgrace.
• He fashions evil for himself who does evil to another, and an evil plan does mischief to the planner.
• Happy is the man whom the Muses love: sweet speech flows from his mouth.
• Giving is good, but taking is bad and brings death.
• Mortals grow swiftly in misfortune.
• The fool knows after he's suffered.
• 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.
• 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.
• Acquisition means life to miserable mortals.
• A day is sometimes our mother, sometimes our stepmother.
• A bad neighbor is as great a calamity as a good one is a great advantage.
• Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.
• Often even a whole city suffers for a bad man who sins and contrives presumptuous deeds.
• Potter is jealous of potter, and craftsman of craftsman; and the poor have a grudge against the poor, and the poet against the poet.
• Preserve the mean; the opportune moment is best in all things.
• 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.
• Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.
• The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.
• Toil is no source of shame; idleness is shame.
• Try to take for a mate a person of your own neighborhood.
• We know how to speak many falsehoods that resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.
• Wealth should not be seized, but the god-given is much better.
• When you deal with your brother, be pleasant, but get a witness.
• Whoever happens to give birth to mischievous children lives always with unending grief in his spirit and heart.
• So the people will pay the penalty for their kings' presumption, who, by devising evil, turn justice from her path with tortuous speech.