Aeschylus
Playwright of ancient Greece, the earliest of the three greatest Greek tragedians, the others being Sophocles and Euripides.
Good fortune is a god among men, and more than a god.
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."
On me the tempest falls. It does not make me tremble. O holy Mother Earth, O air and sun, behold me. I am wronged.
It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
Do not kick against the pricks.
Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
For a deadly blow let him pay with a deadly blow; it is for him who has done a deed to suffer.
Bronze is the mirror of the form; wine, of the heart.
The reward of suffering is experience.
I pray the gods will give me some relief
And end this weary job. One long full year
I've been lying here, on this rooftop,
The palace of the sons of Atreus,
Resting on my arms, just like a dog.
I've come to know the night [[sky], every star,
The powers we see glittering in the sky,
Bringing winter and summer to us all,
As the constellations rise and sink.
I would far rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evil.
A great ox stands on my tongue.
A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.
Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old.
In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.
What is pleasanter than the tie of host and guest?
She [Helen] brought to Ilium her dowry, destruction.
?schylus is above all things the poet of righteousness. "But in any wise, I say unto thee, revere thou the altar of righteousness": this is the crowning admonition of his doctrine, as its crowning prospect is the reconciliation or atonement of the principle of retribution with the principle of redemption, of the powers of the mystery of darkness with the coeternal forces of the spirit of wisdom, of the lord of inspiration and of light.
Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen.
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.