Solon Quotes

πολλοί τοι πλουτοῦσι κακοί, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ πένονται:

Γηράσκω δ’ αἰεὶ πολλὰ διδασκόμενος.

Watch well each separate citizen,
Lest having in his heart of hearts
A secret spear, one still may come
Saluting you with cheerful face,
And utter with a double tongue
The feigned good wishes of his wary mind.

Rule, after you have first learned to submit to rule.

Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath.

An unlucky rich man is more capable of satisfying his desires and of riding out disaster when it strikes, but a lucky man is better off than him…He is the one who deserves to be described as happy. But until he is dead, you had better refrain from calling him happy, and just call him fortunate.

That city in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.

Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them; and I shall so frame my laws that it will be evident to the Athenians that it will be for their interest to observe them.

If through your vices you afflicted are,
Lay not the blame of your distress on God;
You made your rulers mighty, gave them guards,
So now you groan 'neath slavery's heavy rod.

As the Deity has given us Greeks all other blessings in moderation, so our moderation gives us a kind of wisdom which is timid, in all likelihood, and fit for common people, not one which is kingly and splendid. This wisdom, such as it is, observing that human life is ever subject to all sorts of vicissitudes, forbids us to be puffed up by the good things we have, or to admire a man's felicity while there is still time for it to change.

Do not counsel what is most pleasant, but what is best.

Wealth I desire to have; but wrongfully to get it, I do not wish.
Justice, even if slow, is sure.

No fool can be silent at a feast.