Aeschylus: Quotes about life

Aeschylus was ancient Athenian playwright. Explore interesting quotes on life.

Aeschylus: 238 quotes10 likes

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, line 939 (tr. Anna Swanwick)

“For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life.”

κρεῖσσον γὰρ εἰσάπαξ θανεῖν
ἢ τὰς ἁπάσας ἡμέρας πάσχειν κακῶς.
Variant translation by John Stuart Blackie (1850):
"Life and life's sorrows? Once to die is better
Than thus to drag sick life."
Source: Prometheus Bound, lines 750–751

“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

“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:

“Clytemnestra: He collapsed, snorting his life away,
spitting great gobs of blood all over me,
drenching me in showers of his dark blood.
And I rejoiced—just as the fecund earth
rejoices when the heavens send spring rains”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 1388–1392 (tr. Ian Johnston)

“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)

“None of their own will choose a bond-slave's life.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, line 953 (tr. E. H. Plumptre)

“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)