There is no worse evil than a bad woman; and nothing has ever been produced better than a good one.

Why do we make so much of knowledge, struggle so hard to get some little skill not worth the effort?

It is in adversity that the good show their friendship most clearly; prosperity always finds friends.

Time will discover everything to posterity; it is a babbler, and speaks even when no question is put.

This is what it means to be a slave; to be abused and bear it; compelled by violence to suffer wrong.

The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life.

Few have greater riches than the joy That comes to us in visions, In dreams which nobody can take away.

Enjoy yourself, drink, call the life you live today your own; but only that, the rest belongs to chance.

Lucky is the man who has been successful with his children and not got ones who are notorious disasters.

There is something in the pang of change more than the heart can bear, unhappiness remembering happiness.

In the hands of vicious men, a mob will do anything. But under good leaders it's quite a different story.

Greatness brings no profit to people. God indeed, when in anger, brings greater ruin to great mens houses.

Had I succeeded well, I had been reckoned amongst the wise; our minds are so disposed to judge from the event.

A man who has been in danger, When he comes out of it forgets his fears, And sometimes he forgets his promises.

The care of God for us is a great thing, if a man believe it at heart: it plucks the burden of sorrow from him.

The mob gets out of hand, runs wild, worse than raging fire, while the man who stands apart is called a coward.

Fortune always will confer an aura of worth, unworthily; and in this world The lucky person passes for a genius.

What can we take on trust in this uncertain life? Happiness, greatness, pride - nothing is secure, nothing keeps.

To an old father, nothing is more sweet than a daughter. Boys are more spirited, but their ways are not so tender.

May he die with no joy at his end, The man who won't be troubled To unlock the keys of his heart and make a friend.

Only one in command: that's the way in the home And the way in the state when it must find Measures best for mankind.

Since we are mortal, friendships are best kept to a moderate level, rather than sharing the very depths of our souls.

A sharp-tempered woman, or, for that matter, a man, Is easier to deal with than the clever type Who holds her tongue.

Lucky that man whose children make his happiness in life and not his grief, the anguished disappointment of his hopes.

For no mortal ever attains to blessedness. One may be luckier than another when wealth flows his way, but blessed never.

The way of God is complex, he is hard for us to predict. He moves the pieces and they come somehow into a kind of order.

Those who are held Wise among men and who search the reasons of things, are those who bring the most sorrow on themselves.

A just cause needs no interpreting. It carries its own case. But the unjust argument since it is sick, needs clever medicine.

Children are sweet as the buds in spring, But I've noticed that those who have them Have nothing but trouble all their lives.

All men know their children Mean more than life. If childless people sneer- Well, they've less sorrow. But what lonesome luck!

Events will take their course, it is no good of being angry at them; he is happiest who wisely turns them to the best account.

Venus, thy eternal sway All the race of men obey. Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis. He is not a lover who does not love for ever.

Soon all of you immortals Will be as dead as we are! Come on then, what are you waiting for? Have you run out of thunderbolts?

Love must not touch the marrow of the soul. Our affections must be breakable chains that we can cast them off or tighten them.

I loathe a friend whose gratitude grows old, a friend who takes his friend's prosperity but will not voyage with him in his grief

If I could remake the world, I'd banish women, send them away with all their trouble. Then children would come from a purer source.

I think that fortune watcheth o'er our lives, surer than we. But well said: he who strives will find his goals strive for him equally.

Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own: [I hate a sage who is not wise for himself]

Vengeance comes not slowly either upon you or any other wicked man, but steals silently and imperceptibly, placing its foot on the bad.

To a father waxing old, nothing is dearer than a daughter; sons have spirits of a higher pitch, but less inclined to endearing fondness.

No one is truly free, they are a slave to wealth, fortune, the law, or other people restraining them from acting according to their will.

Happy is it to place a daughter; yet it pains a father's heart when he delivers to another's house a child, the object of his tender care.

God in heaven has dominion Over so many events. He can frustrate what seems inevitable, And bring to pass the thing that you least expect.

Of mortals there is no one who is happy. If wealth flows in upon one, one may be perhaps luckier than one's neighbor, but still not happy.

I know indeed what evil I intend to do, but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury, fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.

Our ancestors... purged their guilt by banishment, not death. And by so doing, they stopped that endless vicious cycle of murder and revenge.

Who then will dare to say I'm weak or timid? No, they'll say I'm loyal as a friend, ruthless as a foe, so much like a hero destined for glory.

Humility, a sense of reverence before the sons of heaven - of all the prizes that a mortal man might win, these, I say, are wisest; these are best.

When good men die their goodness does not perish, But lives though they are gone. As for the bad, All that was theirs dies and is buried with them.

I think it makes small difference to the dead, if they are buried in the tokens of luxury. All that is an empty glorification left for those who live.

Share This Page