Hesiod quotes:

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  • Whoever happens to give birth to mischievous children lives always with unending grief in his spirit and heart.

  • Happy is the man whom the Muses love: sweet speech flows from his mouth.

  • We know how to speak many falsehoods that resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.

  • So the people will pay the penalty for their kings' presumption, who, by devising evil, turn justice from her path with tortuous speech.

  • False shame accompanies a man that is poor, shame that either harms a man greatly or profits him; shame is with poverty, but confidence with wealth.

  • For a man wins nothing better than a good wife, and then again nothing deadlier than a bad one.

  • But they who give straight judgements to strangers and to those of the land and do not transgress what is just, for them the city flourishes and its people prosper.

  • Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you; she is after your barn.

  • Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things the most important factor.

  • It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy.

  • Whoever, fleeing marriage and the sorrows that women cause, does not wish to wed comes to a deadly old age.

  • A bad neighbor is as great a calamity as a good one is a great advantage.

  • It is not possible either to trick or escape the mind of Zeus.

  • Whoever has trusted a woman has trusted deceivers.

  • Often even a whole city suffers for a bad man who sins and contrives presumptuous deeds.

  • He fashions evil for himself who does evil to another, and an evil plan does mischief to the planner.

  • Bring a wife home to your house when you are of the right age, not far short of 30 years, nor much above; this is the right time for marriage.

  • For both faith and want of faith have destroyed men alike.

  • Preserve the mean; the opportune moment is best in all things.

  • Giving is good, but taking is bad and brings death.

  • When you deal with your brother, be pleasant, but get a witness.

  • Acquisition means life to miserable mortals.

  • A day is sometimes our mother, sometimes our stepmother.

  • The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest.

  • Badness you can get easily, in quantity. The road is smooth and lies close by. But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to do it, and rough at first. But when you come to the top, then it is easy, even though it is hard.

  • The artist envies what the arties gains, The bard the rival bard's successful strains.

  • It will not always be summer: build barns.

  • Never make a companion equal to a brother.

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

  • If you should put even a little on a little and should do this often, soon this would become big.

  • Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.

  • I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.

  • And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men too, when they, at their birth, have grey hair on their temples.

  • Actions from youth, advice from the middle-aged, prayers from the aged.

  • A bad neighbor is a misfortune, as much as a good one is a great blessing.

  • He harms himself who does harm to another, and the evil plan is most harmful to the planner.

  • The man who procrastinates is always struggling with misfortunes.

  • He for himself weaves woe who weaves for others woe, and evil counsel on the counselor recoils.

  • No whispered rumours which the many spread can wholly perish.

  • Mortals grow swiftly in misfortune.

  • 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.

  • In front of excellence, the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it.

  • Justice prevails over transgression when she comes to the end of the race.

  • Love, who is most beautiful among the immortal gods, the melter of limbs, overwhelms in their hearts the intelligence and wise counsel of all gods and all men.

  • Badness you can get easily, in quantity; the road is smooth, and it lies close by, But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it.

  • Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the larger the load, the greater will be the profit upon profit.

  • The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.

  • Potter is jealous of potter, and craftsman of craftsman; and the poor have a grudge against the poor, and the poet against the poet.

  • Wealth should not be seized, but the god-given is much better.

  • Toil is no source of shame; idleness is shame.

  • ...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.

  • A man fashions ill for himself who fashions ill for another, and the ill design is most ill for the designer.

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

  • A sparing tongue is the greatest treasure among men.

  • Aegis-bearing Zeus has a design for each occasion, and mortals find this hard to comprehend.

  • An evil plan does mischief to the planner.

  • An income means life to wretched mortals, but it is a terrible fate to die among the waves.

  • And the evil wish is most evil to the wisher.

  • At the beginning of the cask and the end take thy fill but be saving in the middle; for at the bottom the savings comes too late.

  • Bacteria: The only culture some people have.

  • Before the gates of excellence the high gods have placed sweat; long is the road thereto and rough and steep at first; but when the heights are reached, then there is ease, though grievously hard in the winning.

  • Best is the man who thinks for himself.

  • Bring a wife home to your house when you are of the right age, not far short of 30 years, nor much above this is the right time for marriage.

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

  • Do not gain basely; base gain is equal to ruin.

  • Do not get a name as overly lavish or too inhospitable.

  • Do not put all your goods in hollow ships.

  • Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.

  • Do not seek dishonest gains: dishonest gains are losses.

  • Do not seek evil gains; evil gains are the equivalent of disaster

  • Drink your fill when the jar is first opened, and when it is nearly done, but be sparing when it is half-empty; it's a poor savingwhen you come to the dregs.

  • Even though it's hard, it's easy.

  • Evil can be got very easily and exists in quantity: the road to her is very smooth, and she lives near by. But between us and virtue the gods have placed the sweat of our brows; the road to her is long and steep, and it is rough at first; but when a man has reached the top, then she is easy to attain, although before she was hard.

  • Far best is he who is himself all-wise, and he, too, good who listens to wise words; But whoso is not wise or lays to hear another's wisdom is a useless man.

  • Fools, they do not even know how much more is the half than the whole.

  • For now indeed is the race of iron; and men never cease from labour and sorrow by day and from perishing by night.

  • Gain not base gains; base gains are the same as losses.

  • Gossip and rumor are evil; easy to lift up, heavy to carry, and hard to put down again.

  • He is a fool who tries to match his strength with the stronger.

  • He is senseless who would match himself against a stronger man; for he is deprived of victory and adds suffering to disgrace.

  • He's only harming himself who's bent upon harming another

  • How easily some light report is set about, but how difficult to bear.

  • Hunger is an altogether fit companion for the idle man.

  • If you add a little to a little and do this often, soon the little will become great.

  • If you speak evil, you will soon be worse spoken of.

  • In the morning of like, work; in the midday, give counsel; in the evening, pray.

  • In the race for wealth, a neighbor tries to outdo his neighbor, but this strife is good for men. For the potter envies potter, and the carpenter the carpenter, and the beggar rivals the beggar, and the singer the singer.

  • In work there is no shame; shame is in the idleness.

  • Inhibition is no good provider for a needy man

  • Inhibition is no good provider for a needy man, Inhibition, which does men great harm and great good. Inhibition attaches to poverty, boldness to wealth.

  • Invite the man that loves thee to a feast, but let alone thine enemy.

  • Invite your friend to dinner; have nothing to do with your enemy.

  • It is a hard thing for a man to be righteous, if the unrighteous man is to have the greater right.

  • Keep adding little by little and it will become a big heap.

  • Labor is no disgrace.

  • Let it please thee to keep in order a moderate-sized farm, that so thy garners may be full of fruits in their season.

  • Let the price fixed with a friend be sufficient, and even dealing with a brother call in witnesses, but laughingly.

  • Long exercise, my friend, inures the mind; And what we once disliked we pleasing find.

  • Love those who love you, help those you help you, and give to those who give to you.

  • Love, the fairest among the undying gods, who loosens the limbs of all gods and men, conquers resolve and prudent counsel within the breast.

  • Man's chiefest treasure is a sparing tongue.

  • Men must sweat to attain virtue.

  • Money is life to us wretched mortals.

  • Neither make thy friend equal to a brother; but if thou shalt have made him so, be not the first to do him wrong.

  • Night, having Sleep, the brother of Death.

  • No day is wholly unproductive of good.

  • No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it, too, is a kind of divinity.

  • Of themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus

  • Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.

  • Only fools need suffer to learn.

  • Peace is a nursing mother to the land.

  • Potter is piqued with potter, joiner with joiner, beggar begrudges beggar, and singer singer.

  • Potter is potter's enemy, and craftsman is craftsman's rival; tramp is jealous of tramp, and singer of singer.

  • The best man of all is he who knows everything himself. Good also the man who accepts another's sound advice; but the man who neither knows himself nor takes to hear what another says, he is no good at all.

  • The dawn speeds a man on his journey, and speeds him too in his work.

  • The fool knows after he has suffered.

  • The fool learns by suffering.

  • The gods being always close to men perceive those who afflict others with unjust devices and do not fear the wrath of heaven.

  • The Gods rank work above virtues.

  • The half is greater than the whole.

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