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Aeschylus

"The Father of Greek Tragedy"; "The Father of Greek Drama"; "The Father of Tragedy"; The Founder of the Greek Drama". Greek. Dramatist. Wrote Prometheus Bound; seven of 90 plays survive.

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A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.

Against a spike: Kick not, for fear it pain thee if thou strike.

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.

And in this too profit begets profit.

And there are good and great men, no doubt, who put an initial for their first name … but the awful majority of men who do that, will lie, and swindle, and steal, just from a natural instinct.

And though all streams flow from a single course to cleanse the blood from polluted hand, they hasten on their course in vain.

Are we now smitten.

As long as there are men the bulwark is safe.

Ask the gods nothing excessive.

Be bold and boast, just like the cock beside the hen.

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

But from the good health of the mind comes that which is dear to all and the object of prayer – happiness.

Call no man happy till he is dead.

Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny.

Death is softer by far than tyranny.

Destiny waits alike for the free man as well as for him enslaved by another's might.

Every ruler is harsh whose laws is new.

Everyone's quick to blame the alien.

Everyone, to those weaker than themselves, is kind.

Excessive fear is always powerless.

Exiles feed on hope.

Fear hurries on my tongue through want of courage.

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

For he does not wish to seem but to be just.

For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.

For the impious act begets more after it, like to the parent stock.

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.

Fountains of tears.
[Lat., Fons lacrymarum.]

God is not averse to deceit in a holy cause.

God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard.

God loves to help him who strives to help himself.

He bears but half who hears one party only.

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.

His resolve is not to seem the bravest, but to be.

His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.

Hold him alone truly fortunate who has ended his life in happy well-being.

I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.

I say that the dead are slaying the living.

I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil.

If you pour oil and vinegar into the same vessel, you would call them not friends but opponents.

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

In few men is it part of nature to respect a friend's prosperity without begrudging him.

In war, truth is the first casualty.

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.

It is always in season for old men to learn.

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

It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.

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

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

It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.

Kick not, for fear it pain thee if thou strike.

Latin: Esse quam videri.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old.

Making it a valid law to learn by suffering.

Memory is the mother of all wisdom.

Necessity is stronger far than art.

Never in misfortune nor in prosperity may I share my dwelling with the tribe of women.

Obedience is the mother of success, and success the parent of salvation.

Obedience is the mother of success, the wife of safety.

Of prosperity mortals can never have enough.

Old men are always young enough to learn.

Only when a man's life comes to its end in prosperity dare we pronounce him happy.

Only when man's life comes to its end in prosperity can one call that man happy.

Report uttered by the people is everywhere of great power.

Shoals of corpses shall witness, mute, even to generations to come, before the eyes of men that we ought never, being mortal, to cast our sights too high.

Since long I’ve held silence a remedy for harm.

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' hand // are we now smitten.

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' hand
Are we now smitten."

Success is man's god.

Suffering brings experience.

Sweet is a grief well ended.

The evils of mortals are manifold; nowhere is trouble of the same wing seen.

The field of doom bears death as its harvest.

The future you shall know when it has come; before then forget it.

The laws of a state change with the changing times.

The man whose authority is recent is always stern.

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like and do what you'd druther not.

The reward of suffering is experience.

The saying goes that the gods leave a town once it is captured.

The wisest of the wise may err.

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.

These things are not inscribed in tablets, not sealed in the folds of papyri, but you hear them clearly from the tongue in a free mouth.

This poison, that he cannot trust a friend.

Time as he grows old teaches all things.

To be fortunate is God, and more than God to mortals.

To be free from evil thoughts is God's best gift.

To be rather than to seem. Latin: Esse quam videri.

To be rather than to seem.
[Lat., Esse quam videri.]

To the man who himself strives earnestly, God also lends a helping hand.

We have a man who does not boast, but whose hand sees what must be done.

We shall perish by guile just as we slew.

We should know clearly before we discuss this matter; to guess is one thing, to know clearly another.

What atonement is there for blood spilt upon the earth?

What exists outside is a man’s concern; let no woman give advice; and do no mischief within doors.

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

When a match has equal partners then I fear not.

When a match has equal partners then I fear not.

When a tongue fails to send forth appropriate shafts, there might be a word to act as healer of these.

When one is willing and eager, the Gods join in.

Who holds a power but newly gained is ever stern of mood.

Who, except the gods, can live time through forever without any pain?

Wiles and deceit are female qualities.

Wisdom comes alone through suffering.

Words are the physicians of the mind diseased.

Ye waves
That o'er th' interminable ocean wreathe
Your crisped smiles.

You shall learn, though late, the lesson of how to be discreet.

You wish to be thought to act justly rather than to do so.