Aeschylus > Quotes

“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.”
― Aeschylus

“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.”
― Aeschylus

“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.”
― Aeschylus, Agamemnon

“My will is mine...I shall not make it soft for you.”
― Aeschylus, Agamemnon

“Nothing forces us to know
What we do not want to know
Except pain”
― Aeschylus, The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides

“For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life.”
― Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

“Tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.”
― Aeschylus

“It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.”
― Aeschylus

“For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.”
― Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

“In war, truth is the first casualty.”
― Aeschylus

“There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain.”
― Aeschylus, The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides

“To learn is to be young, however old.”
― Aeschylus

“They sent forth men to battle, But no such men return; And home, to claim their welcome, Come ashes in an urn”
― Aeschylus, Agamemnon

“In war, the first casualty is truth.”
― Aeschylus, Agamemnon

“Time, as it grows old, teaches all things.”
― Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

“Oh, the torment bred in the race,
the grinding scream of death
and the stroke that hits the vein,
the hemorrhage none can staunch, the grief,
the curse no man can bear.

But there is a cure in the house, and not outside it, no,
not from others but from them,
their bloody strife. We sing to you,
dark gods beneath the earth.

Now hear, you blissful powers underground --
answer the call, send help.
Bless the children, give them triumph now.”
― Aeschylus, The Oresteia Trilogy: Agamemnon, the Libation-Bearers and the Furies

“Memory is the mother of all wisdom. ”
― Aeschylus

“There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.”
― Aeschylus

“I gave them hope, and so turned away their eyes from death”
― Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

“Suffering brings experience.”
― Aeschylus

“Call no man happy till he is dead.”
― Aeschylus

“She looked just like a painting dying to speak.”
― Aeschylus, Agamemnon

“This was always going to happen.
She's been dead since the beginning.”
― Aeschylus, Aeschylus: The Oresteia

“There is no avoidance in delay.”
― Aeschylus, Agamemnon

“It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted.”
― Aeschylus

“PROMETHEUS: 'Oh, it is easy for the one who stands outside the prison-wall of pain to exhort and teach the one who suffers”
― Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

“I know how men in exile feed on dreams”
― Aeschylus

“His resolve is not to seem, but to be, the best.”
― Aeschylus, The Seven Against Thebes

“Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?”
― Aeschylus, Agamemnon

“It's not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath”
― Aeschylus