110+ Aeschylus Quotes On Death, Grief And Dreams

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greek playwright who lived in the 5th century BC. He is often credited as the father of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three great tragedians of classical Athens. He wrote over 70 plays, of which only seven survive to this day. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Aeschylus on death, grief, dreams.

Top 10 Aeschylus Quotes

1. He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
2. Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?
3. There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.
4. It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.
5. It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.
6. The air is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven, Zeus all that is, and what transcends them all.
7. Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
8. For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.
9. By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water.
10. I have learned to hate all traitors, and there is no disease that I spit on more than treachery.

Aeschylus Image Quotes

Better to die on your feet than live on your knees. — Aeschylus

By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water. — Aeschylus

Aeschylus Short Quotes

• Married love between man and woman is bigger than oaths guarded by right of nature.
• Wrong must not win by technicalities.
• Call no man happy till he is dead.
• It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.
• For know that no one is free, except Zeus.
• There is no sickness worse for me than words that to be kind must lie.
• Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.
• For the lips of Zeus do not know how to lie, but bring to fulfilment every word.
• Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery.
• The act of evil breeds others to follow, young sins in its own likeness.

Aeschylus Quotes About Death

Of all the gods only death does not desire gifts. — Aeschylus

But when once the earth has sucked up a dead man's blood, there is no way to raise him up. — Aeschylus

Of all the gods, Death only craves not gifts: Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed By hymns of praise. From him alone of all The powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof. — Aeschylus

For children preserve the fame of a man after his death. — Aeschylus

A man dies not for the many wounds that pierce his breast, unless it be that life's end keep pace with death, nor by sitting on his hearth at home doth he the more escape his appointed doom. — Aeschylus

O Death the Healer, scorn thou not, I pray, To come to me: of cureless ills thou art The one physician. Pain lays not its touch Upon a corpse. — Aeschylus

From him [Death] alone of all the powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof. — Aeschylus

If a man should wanton walk with crime ... he shall find in death no great deliverance. — Aeschylus

For a single path leads to the house of Hades. — Aeschylus

Death is softer by far than tyranny. — Aeschylus

Aeschylus Quotes About Grief

Chorus: Zeus, who guided men to think who laid it down that wisdom comes alone through suffering. Still there drips in sleep against the heart grief of memory; against our pleasure we are temperate. — Aeschylus

Sweet is a grief well ended. — Aeschylus

For wherein is life sweet to him who suffers grief? — Aeschylus

Aeschylus Quotes About Dreams

I know how men in exile feed on dreams. — Aeschylus

Old men, what are they? Fast fading the leaf, Three-footed they walk, yet frail as a child, As a dream set afloat in the daylight. — Aeschylus

Old men are children once again a dream that sways and wavers into the hard light of day. — Aeschylus

Beyond age, leaf withered, man goes three footed no stronger than a child is, a dream that falters in daylight. — Aeschylus

Aeschylus Quotes About Wise

Few men have the natural strength to honor a friend's success without envy. — Aeschylus

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish. — Aeschylus

The wisest of the wise may err. — Aeschylus

Search well and be wise, nor believe that self-willed pride will ever be better than good counsel. — Aeschylus

Self-will in the man who does not reckon wisely is by itself the weakest of all things. — Aeschylus

The one knowing what is profitable, and not the man knowing many things, is wise. — Aeschylus

Truly even he errs that is wiser than the wise. — Aeschylus

It is best for the wise man not to seem wise. — Aeschylus

For this is the mark of a wise and upright man, not to rail against the gods in misfortune. — Aeschylus

Let there be wealth without tears; enough for the wise man who will ask no further. — Aeschylus

Aeschylus Quotes About Gods

God's most lordly gift to man is decency of mind. — Aeschylus

When a man's willing and eager the god's join in. — Aeschylus

God always strives together with those who strive. — Aeschylus

Wisdom comes through suffering. Trouble, with its memories of pain, Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep, So men against their will Learn to practice moderation. Favours come to us from gods. — Aeschylus

God loves to help him who strives to help himself. — Aeschylus

The truth Has to be melted out of our stubborn lives By suffering. Nothing speaks the truth, Nothing tells us how things really are, Nothing forces us to know What we do not want to know Except pain. And this is how the gods declare their love. — Aeschylus

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

[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. — Aeschylus

Whenever a man makes haste, God too hastens with him. — Aeschylus

On him who wields power gently, the god looks favorably from afar. — Aeschylus

Aeschylus Quotes About Suffering

Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. — Aeschylus

Wisdom comes alone through suffering. — Aeschylus

The reward of suffering is experience. — Aeschylus

For the poison of hatred seated near the heart doubles the burden for the one who suffers the disease; he is burdened with his own sorrow, and groans on seeing another's happiness. — Aeschylus

Oh, it is easy for the one who stands outside the prison-wall of pain to exhort and teach the one who suffers. — Aeschylus

Justice turns the scale, bringing to some learning through suffering. — Aeschylus

If a man suffers ill, let it be without shame; for this is the only profit when we are dead. You will never say a good word about deeds that are evil and disgraceful. — Aeschylus

There is no disgrace in an enemy suffering ill at an enemy's hand, when you hate mutually. — Aeschylus

It is a light thing for whoever keeps his foot outside trouble to advise and counsel him that suffers. — Aeschylus

I have been schooled by my own suffering: I've learned the many ways of being purged. — Aeschylus

Aeschylus Quotes About Wisdom

Memory is the mother of all wisdom. — Aeschylus

Obstinacy standing alone is the weakest of all things in one whose mind is not possessed by wisdom. — Aeschylus

Be it mine to draw from wisdom's fount, pure as it flows, that calm of soul which virtue only knows. — Aeschylus

There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain. — Aeschylus

By suffering comes wisdom. — Aeschylus

It is good even for old men to learn wisdom. — Aeschylus

Those who would learn must suffer. In our own despair, against our will, wisdom comes to us. — Aeschylus

Aeschylus Famous Quotes And Sayings

Better to die on your feet than live on your knees. — Aeschylus

By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water. — Aeschylus

ATHENA: You wish to be called righteous rather than act right. [...] I say, wrong must not win by technicalities. — Aeschylus

Justice, voiceless, unseen, seeth thee when thou sleepest and when thou goest forth and when thou liest down. Continually doth she attend thee, now aslant thy course, now at a later time. These lines are from a section of doubtful or spurious fragments. — Aeschylus

The holy heaven yearns to wound the earth, and yearning layeth hold on the earth to join in wedlock; the rain, fallen from the amorous heaven, impregnates the earth, and it bringeth forth for mankind the food of flocks and herds and Demeter's gifts; and from that moist marriage-rite the woods put on their bloom. — Aeschylus

Whoever is just willingly and without compulsion will not lack happiness; he will never be utterly destroyed. — Aeschylus

Ah, lives of men! When prosperous they glitter - Like a fair picture; when misfortune comes - A wet sponge at one blow has blurred the painting. — Aeschylus

So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft: With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten. — Aeschylus

Be bold and boast, just like the cock beside the hen. — Aeschylus

Whoever is new to power is always harsh. — Aeschylus

The tongue of slander is too prompt with wanton malice to wound the stranger. — Aeschylus

In every tyrant's heart there springs in the end this poison, that he cannot trust a friend. — Aeschylus

When strength is yoked with justice, where is a mightier pair than they? — Aeschylus

In the lack of judgment great harm arises, but one vote cast can set right a house. — Aeschylus

Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old. — Aeschylus

We shall perish by guile just as we slew. — Aeschylus

Time brings all things to pass. — Aeschylus

It is easy when we are in prosperity to give advice to the afflicted. — Aeschylus

He who goes unenvied shall not be admired. — Aeschylus

It is always in season for old men to learn. — Aeschylus

He hears but half who hears one party only. — Aeschylus

My friends, whoever has had experience of evils knows how whenever a flood of ills comes upon mortals, a man fears everything; but whenever a divine force cheers on our voyage, then we believe that the same fate will always blow fair. — Aeschylus

The man whose authority is recent is always stern. — Aeschylus

Obedience is the mother of success and is wedded to safety. — Aeschylus

Everyone's quick to blame the alien. — Aeschylus

It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man. — Aeschylus

To learn is to be young, however old. — Aeschylus

"Reverence for parents" stands written among the three laws of most revered righteousness. — Aeschylus

Hungry wailing standeth not aloof. — Aeschylus

There's only few people who have strength to honor someone's achievement without envy. — Aeschylus

The will was of Zeus, the hand of Hephaestus. — Aeschylus

But from the good health of the mind comes that which is dear to all and the object of prayer-happiness. — Aeschylus

For a murderous blow let murderous blow atone. — Aeschylus

For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends. — Aeschylus

Alas for the affairs of men! When they are fortunate you might compare them to a shadow; and if they are unfortunate, a wet sponge with one dash wipes the picture away. — Aeschylus

Destiny waits alike for the free man as well as for him enslaved by another's might. — Aeschylus

God is not averse to deceit in a holy cause. — Aeschylus

I would rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils. — Aeschylus

The anvil of justice is planted firm, and fate who makes the sword does the forging in advance. — Aeschylus

When a match has equal partners then I fear not. — Aeschylus

Wiles and deceit are female qualities. — Aeschylus

If you pour oil and vinegar into the same vessel, you would call them not friends but opponents. — Aeschylus

No one can count the terrors that the earth spawns, catastrophic, gruesome, and the vast arms of the sea swarm with brute monsters bent on harm, and everywhere between the sky and ground lights bloom by day in flares and sudden bolts; and birds and beasts alike can tell of the whirlwind's whirling wrath. — Aeschylus

Respect the altar of Justice and do not, looking to profit, dishonor it by spurning with godless foot; for punishment will come upon you. — Aeschylus

Mourn for me rather as living than as dead. — Aeschylus

I, schooled in misery, know many purifying rites, and I know where speech is proper and where silence. — Aeschylus

God lends a helping hand to the man who tries hard. — Aeschylus

For Hades is mighty in calling men to account below the earth, and with a mind that records in tablets he surveys all things. — Aeschylus

Since long I've held silence a remedy for harm. — Aeschylus

Yet though a man gets many wounds in breast, He dieth not, unless the appointed time, The limit of his life's span, coincide; Nor does the man who by the hearth at home Sits still, escape the doom that Fate decrees. — Aeschylus

What exists outside is a man's concern; let no woman give advice; and do no mischief within doors. — Aeschylus

Tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. — Aeschylus

Unions in wedlock are perverted by the victory of shameless passion that masters the female among men and beasts. — Aeschylus

Of prosperity mortals can never have enough. — Aeschylus

And though all streams flow from a single course to cleanse the blood from polluted hand, they hasten on their course in vain. — Aeschylus

For in the voyage of the heart, there is a freight of hatred, and the wind of wrath blows shrill. — Aeschylus

Oaths are not the credit of men but men of oaths. — Aeschylus

Remember to be submissive, thou art analien, a fugitive, and in need. — Aeschylus

The cure is in the house, not brought by other hands from distant places, but by its own, in agony and blood. — Aeschylus

No bribes. Nothing that passes under the roof of a temple Or under the roof of the mouth, can appease heaven's anger Or deflect its aim. — Aeschylus

Ye waves That o'er th' interminable ocean wreathe Your crisped smiles. — Aeschylus

With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten. — Aeschylus

To be free from evil thoughts is God's best gift. — Aeschylus

Life Lessons by Aeschylus

1. Aeschylus teaches us to embrace our suffering and use it as a source of strength and wisdom. He encourages us to accept the inevitability of death and to use our time on earth to create something meaningful.
2. He reminds us to stay humble and to recognize our limits, as well as the power of fate and destiny.
3. He also emphasizes the importance of courage, justice, and integrity in our lives, and the power of storytelling to bring us closer together.