Greek dramatist (525 B.C.-456 B.C.)
For wide, ah! wide is the woe when the foeman has mounted the wall;
There is havoc and terror and flame, and the dark smoke broods over all,
And wild is the war-god's breath, as in frenzy of conquest he springs,
And pollutes with the blast of his lips the glory of holiest things!
AESCHYLUS
The Seven Against Thebes
But thou, like newly-yoked colt,
Champing the bit, dost fight against the rein
Fiercely; yet futile the device wherein
Madly thou trustest; for mere stubbornness
Avails the foolish-hearted less than nought.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
Out of respect, a man must veil his words when talking with a woman, but with a man he can frankly say whatever's on his mind.
AESCHYLUS
Libation Bearers
Nor does night conceal men's deeds of ill, but whatsoe'er thou dost, think that some God beholds it.
AESCHYLUS
fragment
Respect the altar of Justice and do not, looking to profit, dishonor it by spurning with godless foot; for punishment will come upon you.
AESCHYLUS
The Eumenides
O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray, to come to me; of cureless ills thou art the one physician. Pain lays not its touch upon a corpse.
AESCHYLUS
fragment, Philoctetes
It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
I know how men in exile feed on dreams of hope.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
On me the tempest falls. It does not make me tremble. O holy Mother Earth, O air and sun, behold me. I am wronged.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
And all the country echoeth with the moan,
And poureth many a tear
For that magnific power
Of ancient days far-seen that thou didst share
With those of one blood sprung;
And all the mortal men who hold the plain
Of holy Asia as their land of sojourn,
They grieve in sympathy
For thy woes lamentable.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound
Old age hath stronger sense of right than youth.
AESCHYLUS
fragment
Not for laggards doth a contest wait.
AESCHYLUS
fragment, Glaukos Potnieus
The burning gaze of a young woman, such as hath tasted man, shall not escape me; for I have a spirit keen to mark these things.
AESCHYLUS
fragment, Toxotides
Thou needs must spit it out and make clean thy mouth.
AESCHYLUS
fragment
Long tarries destiny, but comes to those who pray.
AESCHYLUS
The Libation Pourers
No one can count the terrors that the earth spawns, catastrophic, gruesome, and the vast arms of the sea swarm with brute monsters bent on harm, and everywhere between the sky and ground lights bloom by day in flares and sudden bolts; and birds and beasts alike can tell of the whirlwind's whirling wrath.
AESCHYLUS
Libation Bearers
Ask the gods nothing excessive.
AESCHYLUS
The Suppliant Women
Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
Death hath a fairer fame than a life of toil.
AESCHYLUS
fragment, Ixion
Memory is the mother of all wisdom.
AESCHYLUS
Prometheus Bound