Aeschylus: Man

Aeschylus was ancient Athenian playwright. Explore interesting quotes on man.
Aeschylus: 238 quotes10 likes

“Chorus: Let not thy love to man o'erleap the bounds
Of reason, nor neglect thy wretched state:
So my fond hope suggests thou shalt be free
From these base chains, nor less in power than Jove.
Prometheus: Not thus — it is not in the Fates that thus
These things should end; crush'd with a thousand wrongs,
A thousand woes, I shall escape these chains.
Necessity is stronger far than art.
Chorus: Who then is ruler of necessity?
Prometheus: The triple Fates and unforgetting Furies.
Chorus: Must Jove then yield to their superior power?
Prometheus: He no way shall escape his destined fate.
Chorus: What, but eternal empire, is his fate?
Prometheus: Thou mayst not know this now: forbear to inquire.
Chorus: Is it of moment what thou keep'st thus close?
Prometheus: No more of this discourse; it is not time
Now to disclose that which requires the seal
Of strictest secresy; by guarding which I shall escape the misery of these chains.”

Aeschylus Prometheus Bound

Source: Prometheus Bound, lines 510–524, as translated by R. Potter (1860)

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

Aeschylus The Libation Bearers

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), The Libation Bearers, line 103

“But when a man
speeds toward his own ruin,
a god gives him help.”

Aeschylus The Persians

Source: The Persians (472 BC), line 742 (tr. Janet Lembke and C. J. Herington)

“The man who does ill, ill must suffer too.”

Aeschylus

Fragment 267 https://books.google.com/books?id=OxlHAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA233&dq=%22The+man+who+does+ill,+ill+must+suffer+too.%22 (trans. by Plumptre)

“The jealous poison, lodged within the heart,
Tortures with twofold pang whom it infects;
By his own griefs oppressed, the envious man
Groans also to behold another's joy.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 834–837

“Praise not, O man, the life beyond control,
Nor that which bows unto a tyrant's sway.
Know that the middle way
Is dearest unto God, and they, thereon who wend,
They shall achieve the end.”

Aeschylus Eumenides

Guard well and reverence that form of government Which will eschew alike licence and slavery; Guard well and reverence that form of government Which will eschew alike licence and slavery; And from your polity do not wholly banish fear. For what man living, freed from fear, will still be just? Hold fast such upright fear of the law’s sanctity, <br> <br class="br">Source: Phillip Vellacott, The Oresteian Trilogy, Penguin 1973 ( Google Books https://books.google.com.au/books?id=tuRiOESBVjkC) source: Oresteia (458 BC), Eumenides, lines 526–530 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)<br>Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Aeschylus / Quotes / Oresteia (458 BC) / Eumenides

“Ah state of mortal man! in time of weal,
A line, a shadow! and if ill fate fall,
One wet sponge-sweep wipes all our trace away.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 1327–1329 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

“He has the wisdom of an old man, but his body is at its prime”

Aeschylus

Source: Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), line 622 (tr. Herbert Weir Smyth)

“Only when man's life comes to its end in prosperity can one call that man happy.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Call no man happy till he is dead.
Also attributed to Sophocles in "Oedipus The King".
Hold him alone truly fortunate who has ended his life in happy well-being.
Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 928–929. Variant translations:

“Let not a woman's voice
Be loud in council! for the things without,
A man must care; let women keep within—
Even then is mischief all too probable!”

Aeschylus

Source: Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), lines 200–201 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

“But when the dust has drawn up the blood of a man, once he is dead, there is no return to life.”

Aeschylus Eumenides

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Eumenides, lines 647–648 (tr. Herbert Weir Smyth)

“It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.”

Aeschylus

Fragment 385, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Chorus of Furies: We claim to be just and upright. No wrath from us will come stealthily to the one who holds out clean hands, and he will go through life unharmed; but whoever sins, as this man has, and hides his blood-stained hands, as avengers of bloodshed we appear against him to the end, presenting ourselves as upright witnesses for the dead.”

Aeschylus Eumenides

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Eumenides, lines 312–320 (tr. Herbert Weir Smyth)