128 quotes
Learn to know thy heart,
And, as the times, so let thy manners change,
For by the law of change a new God rules.
The walls of Athens are impregnable,
Their firmest bulwarks her heroic sons.
The Persians (-472)
If I grieve,
I do not therefore wish to multiply
The griefs of others.
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)
My friends, anyone with real experience of trouble knows how, when a surge of it comes upon them, they are apt to fear everything; but when fortune's tide is good, they trust that the same breeze will blow favourably for ever.
The Persians (-472)
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)
True, but the strength of god is mightier still,
And oft, in direst strait,
It lifteth from the lowest depths of ill
Him who, with cloud-veiled eyes, was desperate.
Seven Against Thebes (-467)
I pray for no more youth
perish before its prime;
That Revenge and iron-heated War
May fade with all that has gone before
Into the night of time.
What's determined
Bear, as I can, I must, knowing the might
Of strong Necessity is unconquerable.
Be boastful and be bold, like cock beside his partner. (tr. A. Swanwick)
Oresteia (-458)
Since to open out
And mourn out grief, where it is possible
To draw a tear from the audience, is a work
That pays its own price well.
The field of Sin
Brings forth the fruits of Death.
Seven Against Thebes (-467)
Gain upon gain, and interest to boot!
Seven Against Thebes (-467)
A great ox stands on my tongue.
Oresteia (-458)
And corpses, piled up like sand, shall witness,
Mute, even to the century to come,
Before the eyes of men, that never, being
Mortal, ought we cast our thoughts too high.
The Persians (-472)
Call no man happy till he is dead.
Drop, drop—in our sleep, upon the heart
sorrow falls, memory's pain,
and to us, though against our very will,
even in our own despite,
comes wisdom
by the awful grace of God.
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)