AESCHYLUS QUOTES II
Greek dramatist (525 B.C.-456 B.C.)
Lo, when man's force doth ope
The virgin doors, there is no cure nor hope
For what is lost.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Bearers
Take courage; pain's extremity soon ends.
AESCHYLUS
fragment
I have been schooled by my own suffering: I've learned the many ways of being purged.
AESCHYLUS
Eumenides
The people's awe and innate fear will hold injustice back by day, by night, so long as the people leave the laws intact, just as they are: muddy the cleanest spring, and all you'll have to drink is muddy water.
AESCHYLUS
Eumenides
A man dies not for the many wounds that pierce his breast, unless it be that life's end keep pace with death, nor by sitting on his hearth at home doth he the more escape his appointed doom.
AESCHYLUS
fragment
Where are my many promised gifts and spoils of war? Where are my bold and silver cups?
AESCHYLUS
fragment, Perrhaibides
For a deadly blow let him pay with a deadly blow; it is for him who has done a deed to suffer.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Bearers
God's mouth knows not how to speak falsehood, but he brings to pass every word.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
Arrogance is truly the child of impiety, but from health of soul comes happiness, dear to all, much prayed for.
AESCHYLUS
The Eumenides
Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
The cure is in the house, not brought by other hands from distant places, but by its own, in agony and blood.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Bearers
Wisdom to learn is e'en for old men good.
AESCHYLUS
fragment
Give heed, give heed and give your sympathy
To one who suffers; sorrow roaming wide
Impartial stops and stays awhile with me,
To tarry later seated close by thee.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
From a just fraud God turneth not away.
AESCHYLUS
fragment
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.
AESCHYLUS
Eumenides
Success is man's god.
AESCHYLUS
Choephorae
If a man should wanton walk with crime ... he shall find in death no great deliverance.
AESCHYLUS
The Eumenides
There is no disease I spit on more than treachery.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
Death is preferable -- it is a milder fate than tyranny.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
Verily a prosperous fool is a heavy load.
AESCHYLUS
fragment