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Hesiod QUOTES

Hesiod QUOTES

1 " That man is best who sees the truth himself. Good too is he who listens to wise counsel. But who is neither wise himself nor willing to ponder wisdom is not worth a straw. "

― Hesiod

2 " …Perses, hear me out on justice, and take what I have to say to heart; cease thinking of violence. For the son of Kronos, Zeus, has ordained this law to men: that fishes and wild beasts and winged birds should devour one another, since there is no justice in them; but to mankind he gave justice which proves for the best. "

― Hesiod

3 " He's only harming himself who's bent upon harming another "

― Hesiod , Theogony / Works and Days

4 " Never wade through the pretty ripples
of perpetually flowing
rivers, until you have looked at their lovely waters,
and prayed to them,
and washed your hands in the pale enchanting water. "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

5 " But he who neither thinks for himself nor learns from others, is a failure as a man. "

― Hesiod , Theogony / Works and Days

6 " A man who works evil against another works it really against himself, and bad advice is worst for the one who devised it "

― Hesiod , Works and Days (Academic Monograph Reprint)

7 " For a man can win nothing better than a good wife, and nothing more painful than a bad one. "

― Hesiod , Theogony / Works and Days

8 " Do not let any sweet-talking woman beguile your good sense with the fascination of her shape. It's your barn she's after. "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

9 " For here now is the age of iron. Never by daytime will there be an end to hard work and pain, nor in the night to weariness, when the gods will send anxieties to trouble us. "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

10 " So you, the kings, you too must reflect upon this punishment, because the immortals are here in the midst of manking, observing those who do not hold the gods in awe...but grind each other down with crooked judgements "

― Hesiod , Works and Days (Academic Monograph Reprint)

11 " I mean you well, Perses, you great idiot, and I will tell you. Look, badness is easy to have, you can take it by handfuls without effort. The road that way is smooth and starts here beside you. But between us and virtue the immortals have put what will make us sweat. The road to virtue is long and goes steep up hill, hard climbing at first, but the last of it, when you get to the summit (if you get there) is easy going after the hard part. "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

12 " If anything, which ought not to happen, happens in your neighborhood, neighbors come as they are to help; relatives dress first. "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

13 " Badness can be got easily and in shoals; the road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows; "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

14 " It is best to work, at whatever you have a talent for doing, without turning your greedy thought toward what some other man possesses, but take care of your own livelihood, as I advise you. "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

15 " Better marry a maiden, so you can teach her good manners, and in particular marry one who lives close by you. Look her well over first. Don't marry what will make your neighbors laugh at you, for while there's nothing better a man can win him than a good wife, there's nothing more dismal than a bad one. "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

16 " It is fine to draw on what is on hand, and painful to have need and not have anything there; I warn you to be carful in this. When the bottle has just been opened, and when it's giving out, drink deep; be sparing when it's half-full; but it's useless to spare the fag end. "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

17 " From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing, who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring and the altar of the almighty son of Cronos, and, when they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus or in the Horse's Spring or Olmeius, make their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon and move with vigorous feet. Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis-holder and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder bright-eyed Athene, and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and reverend Themis and quick-glancing Aphrodite, and Hebe with the crown of gold, and fair Dione, Leto, Iapetus, and Cronos the crafty counsellor, Eos and great Helius and bright Selene, Earth too, and great Oceanus, and dark Night, and the holy race of all the other deathless ones that are for ever. And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this word first the goddesses said to me—the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis: 'Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things'. "

― Hesiod , Theogony / Works and Days

18 " He does mischief to himself who does mischief to another, and evil planned harms the plotter most. "

― Hesiod , The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

19 " When quarrel and strife arose among the immortals, if one of them that dwells on Olympus speaks false, Zeus sends Iris to bring the gods' great oath from far off in a golden jug, the celebrated golden water that drops from a high, sheer cliff and, far below the wide-pathed earth, flows from the holy river through dark night, a branch of Oceanus. A tenth part is her share: nine parts Oceanus winds round the earth and the broad back of the sea with his silver eddies, and falls into the brine, while that one part issues forth from the cliff, a great bane to the gods. "

― Hesiod , Theogony

20 " Plan harm for another and harm yourself most, The evil we hatch always comes home to roost. "

― Hesiod , Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns