The voices / 19 fragments

Æschylus

525 BC — 456 BC

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

Author and source reference ↗

▷ Play this voice Search within this voice ↗Place in time ↗wisdom character mind time faith learning knowledge friendship

Historical source references

Suppliants, 453
Suppliants, 707
Prometheus, 378
Prometheus, 981
Prometheus, 1032
Agamemnon, 584
Agamemnon, 832
Agamemnon, 1668
Choephoræ, 59
Frag
Printed citation: Æschylus
Page 140 · printed citation: Æschylus · subject: Justice
Page 215 · printed citation: Æschylus · subject: Prosperity
Printed page 12 · quotation 20 · Æschylus · Age

Archive entries

01c. 491 BC

I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil.

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02c. 491 BC

"Honour thy father and thy mother" stands written among the three laws of most revered righteousness.

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03c. 491 BC

Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.

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04c. 491 BC

Time as he grows old teaches many lessons.

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05c. 491 BC

God's mouth knows not to utter falsehood, but he will perform each word.

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06c. 491 BC

Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old.

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07c. 491 BC

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.

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08c. 491 BC

Exiles feed on hope.

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09c. 491 BC

Success is man's god.

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10c. 491 BC

So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft, "With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten."

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11c. 491 BC

Of all the gods, Death only craves not gifts: Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed By hymns of praise. From him alone of all The powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof.

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12c. 491 BC

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.

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13c. 491 BC

A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.

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14c. 491 BC

Bronze is the mirror of the form; wine, of the heart.

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15c. 491 BC

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

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16Undated

Success! to thee, as to a god, men bend the knee.

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17Undated

But Justice shines in smoky cottages, and honors the pious. Leaving with averted eyes the gorgeous glare obtained by polluted hands, she is wont to draw nigh to holiness, not reverencing wealth when falsely stamped with praise, and assigning each deed its righteous doom.

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18Undated

Alas for the fate of men! Even in the midst of the highest prosperity a shadow may overturn them; but if they be in adverse fortune a moistened sponge can blot out the picture.

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19Undated

It is always in season for old men to learn.

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Æschylus

Archive entries

Read further

Meditations

The Republic

Tao Te Ching