WIST Quotations

Aeschylus -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:07:57 +0000

It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
(Attributed)

Alt trans.: "'Tis easy for any man who has his foot unentangled by sufferings both to exhort and to admonish him that is in difficulties."

Aeschylus -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 18:06:32 +0000

Truth is the first casualty in war.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
(Misattributed)

Variant: "Truth is the first casualty of war."

Not found, as such, in Aeschylus' works. The closest (Fragm. Incert, xi.) is his phrase "God is not averse to deceit in a just cause." Attribution to of the subject phrase to Aeschylus dates only back to 1965. The first recorded use of the phrase as such is from 1915, but even there it is offered as a quotation from an unnamed source.

More discussion of the history of this phrase can be found here and here.

Aeschylus -- Agamemnon

Dave — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 03:07:00 +0000

Hell to ships, hell to men, hell to cities.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon

Speaking of Helen of Troy. The literal translation is "Ship-destroyer, man-destroyer, city-destroyer."

Aeschylus -- Agamemnon (458 BC)

Dave — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:10:38 +0000

It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon (458 BC)

Aeschylus -- Agamemnon, I. 1364

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Death is a softer thing by far than tyranny.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon, I. 1364

Alt trans.: "Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny." "Death is softer by far than tyranny."

Aeschylus -- Agamemnon, l. 818 [tr. R. Fagles (1975)]

Dave — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:15:59 +0000

How rare, men with the character to praise
a friend’s success without a trace of envy.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon, l. 818 [tr. R. Fagles (1975)]

Aeschylus -- Agamemnon, l. 832

Dave — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:02:25 +0000

Few men have the natural strength to honour a friend’s success without envy. … I well know that mirror of friendship, shadow of a shade.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon, l. 832

Alt trans.: "It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered."

Aeschylus -- Agamemnon, l. 928

Dave — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:38:49 +0000

Only when man’s life comes to its end in prosperity can one call that man happy.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon, l. 928

Alt trans.:

"Call no man happy till he is dead."
"Hold him alone truly fortunate who has ended his life in happy well-being."

Compare to Sophocles.

Aeschylus -- Agamemnon, ll. 175-183 [tr. Johnston (2007)]

Dave — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:16:31 +0000

Zeus, who guided mortals to be wise,
has established his fixed law —
wisdom comes through suffering.
Trouble, with its memories of pain,
drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,
so men against their will
learn to practice moderation.
Favours come to us from gods
seated on their solemn thrones —
such grace is harsh and violent.

τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ-
σαντα, τὸν [πάθει μάθος]
θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν.
στάζει δ’ ἀνθ’ ὕπνου πρὸ καρδίας
μνησιπήμων πόνος· καὶ παρ’ ἄ-
κοντας ἦλθε σωφρονεῖν.
δαιμόνων δέ που χάρις βίαιος
σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon, ll. 175-183 [tr. Johnston (2007)]
(Source)

Alt. trans.:

"It is through suffering that learning comes." [In Arnold Toynbee, "Christianity and Civilization" (1947), Civilization on Trial (1948)]
"God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despite, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God." [tr. Hamilton (1930)]
"Guide of mortal man to wisdom, he who has ordained a law, knowledge won through suffering. 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." [tr. Hamilton (1937)]

The first Hamilton alternate was used, slightly modified, by Robert Kennedy in his speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (4 Apr 1968). Kennedy's family used it as an epitaph on his grave Arlington National Cemetery: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom, through the awful grace of God."

See here for more discussion.

Aeschylus -- Prometheus Bound, l. 224

Dave — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:43:54 +0000

For somehow this is tyranny’s disease, to trust no friends.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Prometheus Bound, l. 224

Alternate translation: "In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend."

Aeschylus -- The Eumenides

Dave — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 03:10:09 +0000

And from your policy do not wholly banish fear,
For what man living, freed from fear, will still be just?

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
The Eumenides

Aeschylus -- The Suppliant Maidens

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Everyone’s quick to blame the alien.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
The Suppliant Maidens

Aeschylus -- Fragment 385

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Fragment 385