Aeschylus Quotes

Death is softer by far than tyranny.

Pour everything out for the blood you have shed, you're wasting your time in appeasing the dead.

There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.

Thus he died, and all the life struggled out of him;
and as he died he spattered me with the dark red
and violent driven rain of bitter-savored blood
to make me glad, as gardens stand among the showers
of God in glory at the birthtime of the buds.

ATHENA: There are two sides to this dispute. I've heard only one half the argument. (...) So you two parties, summon your witnesses, set out your proofs, with sworn evidence to back your stories. Once I've picked the finest men in Athens, I'll return. They'll rule fairly in this case, bound by a sworn oath to act with justice.

that we must suffer, suffer into truth.
We cannot sleep, and drop by drop at the heart
the pain of pain remembered comes again
and we resist, but ripeness comes as well.
From the gods enthroned on the awesome rowing-bench
there comes a violent love.

And there they ring the walls, the young, the lithe. The handsome hold the graves they won in Troy; the enemy earth rides over those who conquered.

I know the stars by heart,
the armies of the night, and there in the lead the ones that bring us snow or the crops of summer, bring us all we have — our great blazing kings of the sky, I know them, when they rise and when the fall . . .

A great ox stands on my tongue.

Who, except the gods, can live time through forever without any pain?

We spoil ourselves with scruples long as things go well.

The moving light, rejoicing in its strength,
Sped from the pyre of pine, and urged its way,
In golden glory, like some strange new sun...

Wisdom comes alone through suffering.

Bastions of wealth
are no deference for the man
who treads the grand altar of Justice
down and out of sight.

[Hermes addresses Prometheus :] To you, the clever and crafty, bitter beyond all bitterness, who has sinned against the gods in bestowing honors upon creatures of a day — to you, thief of fire, I speak.