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Quotes from Oresteia — Aeschylus

525 BC–456 BC Greece

← All quotes by Aeschylus

46 quotes

To me, long disciplined in woe, are known
Divers lustrations; when to speak I know,
When to be silent.

Oresteia (-458)

The jealous poison, lodged within the heart,
Tortures with twofold pang whom it infects;
By his own griefs oppressed, the envious man
Groans also to behold another's joy.

Oresteia (-458)

The default
Of one vote only bringeth ruin deep,
One, cast aright, may stablish house and home.

Oresteia (-458)

For Hades, ruler of the nether sphere,
Exactest auditor of human kind,
Graved on the tablet of his mind
Doth every trespass read.

Oresteia (-458)

Be boastful and be bold, like cock beside his partner. (tr. A. Swanwick)

Oresteia (-458)

A great ox stands on my tongue.

Oresteia (-458)

Prophets find bad news useful. Why, the primary aim Of all their wordy wisdom is to make men gape. (tr. P. Vellacott)

Oresteia (-458)

God’s best gift Is a mind free from folly. (tr. P. Vellacott)

Oresteia (-458)

For love unlovely, when its evil spell
'Mong brutes or men the feebler sex befools,
Conjugial bands o'errules. (tr. A. Swanwick)

Oresteia (-458)

Ah state of mortal man! in time of weal,
A line, a shadow! and if ill fate fall,
One wet sponge-sweep wipes all our trace away. (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

Oresteia (-458)

Seek neither licence, where no laws compel,
Nor slavery beneath a tyrant’s rod;
Where liberty and rule are balanced well
Success will follow as the gift of God. (tr. P. Vellacott)

Oresteia (-458)

Old men are always young enough to learn. (tr. R. Lattimore [l. 583])

Oresteia (-458)

And she who, like a swan,
Has chanted out her last and dying song,
Lies, loved by him. (tr. E. H. Plumptre)

Oresteia (-458)

Thou shalt learn,
Late though it be, the lesson to be wise. (tr. E. H. Plumptre)

Oresteia (-458)

None of their own will choose a bond-slave's life. (tr. E. H. Plumptre)

Oresteia (-458)

For to a dead man his children are the fame that preserves him; like corks they bear the net up, keeping safe the spun flax that stretches up from the depths. (tr. A. H. Sommerstein)

Oresteia (-458)

Dangerous is a people's voice charged with wrath. (tr. H. W. Smyth)

Oresteia (-458)

Sole cure of wrong is silence. (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

Oresteia (-458)

But ancient Arrogance, or soon or late,
When strikes the hour ordained by Fate,
Breedeth new Arrogance, which still
Revels, wild wantoner in human ill. (tr. A. Swanwick)

Oresteia (-458)

Of fortune no man tastes his fill. While pointing envy notes his store, And tongues extol his happiness, Man surfeited will hunger still. For who grows weary of success, Or turns good fortune from his door Bidding her trouble him no more? (tr. P. Vellacott)

Oresteia (-458)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Aeschylus (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.