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Quotes from Works and Days — Hesiod

Greece

← All quotes by Hesiod

49 quotes

Let it please thee to keep in order a moderate-sized farm, that so thy garners may be full of fruits in their season.

Works and Days (-700)

Potter bears a grudge against potter, and craftsman against craftsman, and beggar is envious of beggar, and bard of bard.

Works and Days (-700)

Then, following th'immortals, Fate and Modesty
Mankind deserted, leaving to mortal men
A legacy of woe that nought can cure.

Works and Days (-700)

Fools, they do not even know how much more is the half than the whole.

Works and Days (-700)

Work is no disgrace; it is idleness which is a disgrace.

Works and Days (-700)

Hunger is altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard.

Works and Days (-700)

Only when he has suffered does the fool learn.

Works and Days (-700)

False shame keeps company with him that's poor;
Shame that or harries man or profits him.
Shame poverty pursues, and rashness wealth.

Works and Days (-700)

Neighbour vies with his neighbour as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men.

Works and Days (-700)

Ἄλλοτε μητρυιὴ πέλει ἡμέρη, ἄλλοτε μήτηρ.

Works and Days (-700)

But they will give straight judgements to strangers and to the men of the land, and go not aside from what is just, their city flourishes, and the people prosper in it.

Works and Days (-700)

The deathless gods are near among men and mark all those who oppress their fellows with crooked judgements, and reck not the anger of the gods.

Works and Days (-700)

Work the work which the gods ordained for men, lest in bitter anguish of spirit you with your wife and children seek your livelihood amongst your neighbours, and they do not heed you.

Works and Days (-700)

Take your fill when the cask is first opened and when it is nearly spent, but midways be sparing: it is poor saving when you come to the lees.

Works and Days (-700)

Bring home a wife to your house when you are of the right age, while you are not far short of thirty years nor much above; this is the right age for marriage.

Works and Days (-700)

Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the greater the lading, the greater will be your piled gain, if only the winds will keep back their harmful gales.

Works and Days (-700)

For trust and mistrust, alike ruin men.

Works and Days (-700)

For in misery men grow old quickly.

Works and Days (-700)

They died, as if o'ercome by sleep.

Works and Days (-700)

Gossip is mischievous, light and easy to raise, but grievous to bear and hard to get rid of. No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it too is a kind of divinity.

Works and Days (-700)

Attribution

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