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“We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”
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“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
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“Heart, my heart, so battered with misfortune far beyond your strength, up, and face the men who hate us. Bare your chest to the assault of the enemy, and fight them off. Stand fast among the beamlike spears. Give no ground; and if you beat them, do not brag in open show, nor, if they beat you, run home and lie down on your bed and cry. Keep some measure in the joy you take in luck, and the degree you give away to sorrow. All your life is up-and-down like this.”
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“I have a high art: I hurt with cruelty those who would wound me.”
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“The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one, but that is the best of all.”
― Carmina Archilochi: The Fragments of Archilochos
― Carmina Archilochi: The Fragments of Archilochos
“In the hospitality of war we left them their dead to remember us by.”
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“The fox knows many tricks; the hedgehog one good one.”
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“Some Saian mountaineer
Struts today with my shield.
I threw it down by a bush and ran
When the fighting got hot.
Life seemed somehow more precious.
It was a beautiful shield.
I know where I can buy another
Exactly like it, just as round.”
― Greek Elegy and Iambus - vol II with Anacreontea (Loeb Classical Library - No 259) (Volume II)
Struts today with my shield.
I threw it down by a bush and ran
When the fighting got hot.
Life seemed somehow more precious.
It was a beautiful shield.
I know where I can buy another
Exactly like it, just as round.”
― Greek Elegy and Iambus - vol II with Anacreontea (Loeb Classical Library - No 259) (Volume II)
“The fox knows many tricks, the hedgehog only one. One good one.”
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“Her breasts and her dark hair were perfume
and even an old man would desire her.”
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and even an old man would desire her.”
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“One big thing I understand:
I know how to spit back with black venom
against the man who wrongs me.”
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I know how to spit back with black venom
against the man who wrongs me.”
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“Let the gods take care of everything. Many times
they resurrect a man whom disaster left lying
face down on the black earth. Many times they topple
a man and pin him, back to the soil, though he
was solid on his feet. A multitude of evils
batters him as he wanders hungry and mad.”
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they resurrect a man whom disaster left lying
face down on the black earth. Many times they topple
a man and pin him, back to the soil, though he
was solid on his feet. A multitude of evils
batters him as he wanders hungry and mad.”
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“There’s one big thing I know, to pay back injury done to me with terrible injuries.”
― Greek Lyric Poetry
― Greek Lyric Poetry
“The fox has many tricks, and the hedgehog only one, but that is the best of all”
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“This wheatless island stands like a donkey's back.
It bristles with a tangle of wild woodland.
Oh,
there is no country so beautiful,
no sensual earth that keys my passion
as these plains around the river Siris.”
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It bristles with a tangle of wild woodland.
Oh,
there is no country so beautiful,
no sensual earth that keys my passion
as these plains around the river Siris.”
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“I live here miserable and broken with desire,
pierced through to the bones by the bitterness
of this god-given painful love.
O comrade, this passion makes my limbs limp
and tramples over me.”
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pierced through to the bones by the bitterness
of this god-given painful love.
O comrade, this passion makes my limbs limp
and tramples over me.”
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“They laid down their lives
in the arms of waves.”
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in the arms of waves.”
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“Let brawling waves beat his ship
against the shore, and have the mop-haired Thracians
take him naked at Salmydessos,
and he will suffer a thousand calamities
as he chews the bread of slaves.
His body will stiffen in freezing surf
as he wrestles with slimy seaweed,
and his teeth will rattle like a helpless dog,
flopped on his belly in the surge,
puking out the brine. Let me watch him grovel
in mud—for the wrong he did me:
as a traitor he trampled on our good faith,
he who was once my comrade.”
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against the shore, and have the mop-haired Thracians
take him naked at Salmydessos,
and he will suffer a thousand calamities
as he chews the bread of slaves.
His body will stiffen in freezing surf
as he wrestles with slimy seaweed,
and his teeth will rattle like a helpless dog,
flopped on his belly in the surge,
puking out the brine. Let me watch him grovel
in mud—for the wrong he did me:
as a traitor he trampled on our good faith,
he who was once my comrade.”
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“My javelin is good white bread and Ismarian wine.
When I find rest on my javelin I drink wine.”
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When I find rest on my javelin I drink wine.”
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“O my soul, my soul—you are mutilated helplessly
by this blade of sorrow. Yet rise and bare your chest,
face those who would attack you, be strong, give no ground.
If you defeat them, do not brag like a loudmouth,
If they beat you, don't run home and lie down to cry.
Keep some measure in your joy—or in your sadness during
crisis—that you may understand man's up-and-down life.”
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by this blade of sorrow. Yet rise and bare your chest,
face those who would attack you, be strong, give no ground.
If you defeat them, do not brag like a loudmouth,
If they beat you, don't run home and lie down to cry.
Keep some measure in your joy—or in your sadness during
crisis—that you may understand man's up-and-down life.”
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“The fox knows many tricks,
the hedgehog only one. A good one.”
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the hedgehog only one. A good one.”
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“Хтось із саійців щитом моїм нині хизується, певно:
Славний був щит, але ба, кинуть в кущі довелось
Душу зате я зберіг, ну а щит? Та що мені щит той?
Хай собі!.. Інший куплю — гіршим не буде, либонь.”
― Хліб на списі
Славний був щит, але ба, кинуть в кущі довелось
Душу зате я зберіг, ну а щит? Та що мені щит той?
Хай собі!.. Інший куплю — гіршим не буде, либонь.”
― Хліб на списі
“Father Lykambes, what is this new silliness?
Are your natural brains wholly rotted?
The neighbors laugh openly at your absurd life
and you persist in chattering like a cricket.”
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Are your natural brains wholly rotted?
The neighbors laugh openly at your absurd life
and you persist in chattering like a cricket.”
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“Say goodbye to the island Paros,
farewell to its figs and the seafaring life.”
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farewell to its figs and the seafaring life.”
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“She is a common woman for rent,
but what sensuality and fat ankles.
O fat whore for hire!”
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but what sensuality and fat ankles.
O fat whore for hire!”
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“Listen to me cuss.”
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“All, O all the calamities of all the Hellenes
are set loose on this battleground in Thasos.”
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are set loose on this battleground in Thasos.”
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“Now, I have no desire for poetry or joy,
yet I will make nothing better by crying,
nor worse by seeking good foods and pleasure.”
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yet I will make nothing better by crying,
nor worse by seeking good foods and pleasure.”
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“My lord Apollo, single out the guilty ones,
and in your customary way, destroy them all.”
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and in your customary way, destroy them all.”
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“Nothing in the world can surprise me now. Nothing
is impossible or too wonderful, for Zeus, father
of the Olympians, has turned midday into black night
by shielding light from the blossoming sun,
and now dark terror hangs over mankind.
Anything may happen, so do not be amazed if beasts
on dry land seek pasture with dolphins in
the ocean, and those beasts who loved sunny hills
love crashing seawaves more than the warm mainland.”
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is impossible or too wonderful, for Zeus, father
of the Olympians, has turned midday into black night
by shielding light from the blossoming sun,
and now dark terror hangs over mankind.
Anything may happen, so do not be amazed if beasts
on dry land seek pasture with dolphins in
the ocean, and those beasts who loved sunny hills
love crashing seawaves more than the warm mainland.”
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