Not to be born is, past all prizing, best; but, when a man hath seen the light, this is next best by far, that with all speed he should go thither, whence he hath come.
μὴ φῦναι τὸν ἅπαντα νι-
κᾷ λόγον· τὸ δ᾿, ἐπεὶ φανῇ,
βῆναι κεῖθεν ὅθεν περ ἥ-
κει πολὺ δεύτερον ὡς τάχιστα.
κᾷ λόγον· τὸ δ᾿, ἐπεὶ φανῇ,
βῆναι κεῖθεν ὅθεν περ ἥ-
κει πολὺ δεύτερον ὡς τάχιστα.
Original text (Ancient Greek)
Share this quote
Notes from Wikiquote
Compare Yeats, "From Oedipus at Colonus" (1928) and Auden, "Death's Echo" (1937)