Solon Quotes
638 BC–558 BC Greece
Solon (Greek: Σόλων, Sólōn; c. 638 – c. 558 BCE) was an Athenian statesman, lawgiver and poet. He is numbered among the Seven Sages of Greece.
Also known as: Solon of Athens
Random Solon quote
31 quotes
Preserve nobility of character, more credible than an oath.
Attributed
If you have learned how to be ruled you will know how to rule.
Attributed
Do not counsel what is most pleasant, but what is best.
Attributed
That city in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.
Attributed
He [Solon] also used to say that if all men took their woes to a single place, they would prefer to carry home their own rather than bear their portion from the common heap of miseries.
Attributed
No fool can be silent at a feast.
Attributed
Watch well each separate citizen,
Lest having in his heart of hearts
A secret spear, one still may come
Saluting you with cheerful face,
And utter with a double tongue
The feigned good wishes of his wary mind.
Attributed
Laws are like spider's webs: If some poor weak creature comes up against them, it is caught; but a big one can break through and get away.
Misattributed
An unlucky rich man is more capable of satisfying his desires and of riding out disaster when it strikes, but a lucky man is better off than him…He is the one who deserves to be described as happy. But until he is dead, you had better refrain from calling him happy, and just call him fortunate.
Attributed
As the Deity has given us Greeks all other blessings in moderation, so our moderation gives us a kind of wisdom which is timid, in all likelihood, and fit for common people, not one which is kingly and splendid. This wisdom, such as it is, observing that human life is ever subject to all sorts of vicissitudes, forbids us to be puffed up by the good things we have, or to admire a man's felicity while there is still time for it to change.
Attributed
[Solon . . . answered that] men keep their agreements with each other when neither party profits by the breaking of them, and he was adapting his laws to the citizens in such a manner as to make it clear to all that the practice of justice was more advantageous than the transgression of the laws.
Attributed