Aeschylus
Playwright of ancient Greece, the earliest of the three greatest Greek tragedians, the others being Sophocles and Euripides.
For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends.
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."
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.
Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen.
?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.
She [Helen] brought to Ilium her dowry, destruction.
What is pleasanter than the tie of host and guest?
In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend.
Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old.
A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.
A great ox stands on my tongue.
Good fortune is a god among men, and more than a god.
I would far rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evil.
It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
On me the tempest falls. It does not make me tremble. O holy Mother Earth, O air and sun, behold me. I am wronged.
Do not kick against the pricks.
Aeschylus is not impersonal but transpersonal, a believer in fate and moral responsibility at the same time.
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.
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.