WIST Quotations

Euripides -- Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1078ff (431 BC) [tr. Warner (1944)]

Dave — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:39:52 +0000

MEDEA: I know indeed what evil I intend to do,
But stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury,
Fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.

[ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: Καὶ μανθάνω μὲν οἷα τολμήσω κακά,
θυμὸς δὲ κρείσσων τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων,
ὅσπερ μεγίστων αἴτιος κακῶν βροτοῖς.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Medea [Μήδεια], l. 1078ff (431 BC) [tr. Warner (1944)]
(Source)

As she is about to murder her children as part of her revenge on Jason, their father.

(Source (Greek)). Other translations:

I now am well aware
What crimes I venture on: but rage, the cause
Of woes most grievous to the human race,
Over my better reason hath prevail'd.
[tr. Wodhull (1782)]

I know, I feel the ills, my soul now dares;
But rage, which lords it ov'er my breast, gives birth
To all the dreadful ills that chasten man.
[tr. Potter (1814)]

Oh I do know what sorrows I shall make,
But anger keeps the mastery of my thoughts,
Which is the chiefest cause of human woes.
[tr. Webster (1868)]

At last I understand the awful deed I am to do; but passion, that cause of direst woes to mortal man, hath triumphed o'er my sober thoughts.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

I know indeed the ills that I am about to dare, but my rage is master of my counsels, which is indeed the cause of the greatest calamities to men.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

I know, indeed, the evil of that I purpose; but my inclination gets the better of my judgment.
[Bartlett's (1892)]

Now, now, I learn what horrors I intend:
But passion overmastereth sober thought:
And this is cause of direst ills to men.
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]

Yea, I know to what bad things
I go, but louder than all thought doth cry
Anger, which maketh man's worst misery.
[tr. Murray (1906)]

I understand
The horror of what I am going to do; but anger,
The spring of all life's horror, masters my resolve.
[tr. Vellacott (1963)]

I understand how evilly I am about to act,
But my spirit is stronger than my will to resist,
Spirit, the greatest cause of evil for men.
[tr. Podlecki (1989)]

And I know well what pain I am about to undergo, but my wrath overbears my calculation, wrath that brings mortal men their gravest hurt.
[tr. Kovacs (Loeb) (1994)]

I am well aware how terrible a crime I am about to commit, but my passion is master of my reason, passion that causes the greatest suffering in the world.
[tr. Davie (1996)]

I know only too well how horrible the crime I am about to commit is. Logic makes it clear for me but anger, the only cause of man’s most terrible suffering, anger, conquers my logic.
[tr. Theodoridis (2004)]

I understand what evil I am about to do
but my wrath is stronger even than my thoughts,
which is the cause of the greatest wrongs of humankind.
[tr. Luschnig (2007)]

I understand too well the dreadful act
I’m going to commit, but my judgment
cannot check my anger, and that incites
the greatest evils human beings do.
[tr. Johnston (2008)]

I know well what evil I intend to do,
but anger overbears my calculation,
anger, cause of the worst misery to man.
[ed. Yeroulanos (2016)]

I know how great a crime I'm going to commit,
but anger has control over my plans
anger, which is the greatest cause of human pain.
[tr. Ewans (2022)]

At last I understand the evils [kaka] that I will perform; but my thūmos, responsible [aitios] for the greatest troubles [kaka] for mortals, is stronger than my sober thoughts.
[tr. Coleridge / Ceragioli / Nagy / Hour25]

And I know well what pain I am about to undergo, but my wrath overpowers my calculation, wrath that brings mortal men their gravest hurt.
[tr. Kovacs / Zhang / Rogak]

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 1855 (1727)

Dave — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:27:00 +0000

Boast not of thy good Deeds, lest thy evil Deeds also be brought upon the Board.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 1855 (1727)
(Source)

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm -- Letter to Ernst, Landgrave of Hessen-Rheinfels (9 Jul 1688) [tr. Fasnacht (1952)]

Dave — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 01:39:03 +0000

All things being equal, those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.

[Caeteris paribus, on trouvera tousjours que ceux qui ont plus de puissance sont sujets à pécher davantage; et il n’y a point de théorème de géométrie qui soit plus asseuré que cette proposition.]

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) German mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, polymath
Letter to Ernst, Landgrave of Hessen-Rheinfels (9 Jul 1688) [tr. Fasnacht (1952)]
(Source)

Quoted by John Dalberg, Lord Acton (and thus often attributed to him).

Acton's quotation was in his Inaugural Lecture on History, Cambridge (11 Jun 1895). In the lecture, after mentioning the academic precept "never be surprised by the crumbling of an idol or the disclosure of a skeleton; judge talent at its best and character at its worst; suspect power more than vice," he footnotes this Leibniz quotation (in its source French, with the Latin introduction). This was in turn translated into English in G. E. Fasnacht, Acton's Political Philosophy, ch. 6 (1952), after which it became erroneously cited by others to Acton.

The source letter (in which Leibniz is discussing the Jesuits) is collected in Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe, Series 2, vol. 2, p. 278 (2009), reprinted in Stephen Voss, The Leibniz Arnauld Correspondence (2016) (the Source noted), which offers this alternate translation:

Other things being equal, one will always find that those who have more power are subject to sin more. And there is no theorem of Geometry more sure than this proposition.
[tr. Voss (2016)]

Cioran, Emile -- Anathemas and Admirations, ch. 11 “That Fatal Perspicacity” (1986) [tr. R. Howard (1991)]

Dave — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 18:32:21 +0000

By virtue of depression, we recall those misdeeds we buried in the depths of our memory. Depression exhumes our shames.

Emile Cioran (1911-1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist [E.M. Cioran]
Anathemas and Admirations, ch. 11 “That Fatal Perspicacity” (1986) [tr. R. Howard (1991)]
(Source)

Arendt, Hannah -- The Human Condition, Part 5, ch. 33 “Irreversibility and the Power to Forgive” (1958)

Dave — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:59:46 +0000

Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever, not unlike the sorcerer’s apprentice who lacks the magic formula to break the spell.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Human Condition, Part 5, ch. 33 “Irreversibility and the Power to Forgive” (1958)
(Source)

Arnold, Matthew -- Empedocles on Etna, Act 1, sc. 2, ll. 238-242 (1852)

Dave — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:03:48 +0000

We do not what we ought,
What we ought not, we do,
And lean upon the thought
That chance will bring us through;
But our own acts, for good or ill, are mightier powers.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
Empedocles on Etna, Act 1, sc. 2, ll. 238-242 (1852)
(Source)