Aeschylus Quotes

But there is a cure in the house,
and not outside it, no,
not from others but from them,
their bloody strife. We sing to you,
dark gods beneath the earth.

Yet again, isn’t there something terrible in randomness — the idea that at the very bottom of its calculations, real depravity has no master plan of any kind, it’s just a dreamy whim that slides out of people when they are trapped or bored or too lazy to analyze their own mania.

Alas, poor men, their destiny. When all goes well a shadow will overthrow it. If it be unkind one stroke of a wet sponge wipes all the picture out; and that is far the most unhappy thing of all.
-Cassandra

Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word — every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.

For Ares, lord of strife,
Who doth the swaying scales of battle hold,
War’s money-changer, giving dust for gold,
Sends back, to hearts that held them dear,
Scant ash of warriors, wept with many a tear,
Light to the hand, but heavy to the soul;
Yea, fills the light urn full
With what survived the flame — Death’s dusty measure of a hero’s frame!

You have used me strangely.

But the lust for power never dies- men cannot have enough.
No one will lift a hand to send it from his door, to give it warning, 'Power, never come again!

The gods! long since they hold us in contempt,
Scornful of gifts thus offered by the lost!
Why should we fawn and flinch away from doom?

Sophokles is a playwright fascinated in general by people who say no, people who resist compromise, people who make stumbling blocks of themselves, like Antigone or Ajax.

FURIES:
Over the beast doomed to the fire
this is the chant, scatter of wits,
frenzy and fear, hurting the heart,
song of the Furies
binding brain and blighting blood
in its stringless melody.

By the sword you did your work, and by the sword you die.

Sorrow with me, Sorrowful one!
Tell me, whose voice proclaims
Things true and sad,
Naming by all their old, unhappy names,
What drove me mad —

Fear is stronger than arms.

For many among men are they who set high the show of honor, yet break justice.

Every medicine is vain.