Hesiod Quotes (61 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Variant translation: At the beginning of the cask and at the end take thy fill, but be saving in the middle; for at the bottom saving comes too late.
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 368 (translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White).

“The best treasure a man can have is a sparing tongue.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 719.

“They died, as if o'ercome by sleep.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 116.

“The man who trusts womankind trusts deceivers.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 375.

“Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Variant translation: Oft hath even a whole city reaped the evil fruit of a bad man.
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 240.

“There's no place like home.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 365.

“This man, I say, is most perfect who shall have understood everything for himself, after having devised what may be best afterward and unto the end: and good again is he likewise who shall have complied with one advising him well: but whoso neither himself hath understanding, nor when he hears another, lays it to heart, he on the other hand is a worthless man.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 293.

“The generation of the man who swears truly is better thenceforward.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 285.

“He is a fool who tries to withstand the stronger, for he does not get the mastery and suffers pain besides his shame.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 210.

“Only when he has suffered does the fool learn.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 218.

“Potter bears a grudge against potter, and craftsman against craftsman, and beggar is envious of beggar, and bard of bard.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 25.

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

Hesiod book Works and Days

Variant translation: If thou shouldst lay up even a little upon a little, and shouldst do this often, soon would even this become great.
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 361.

“From whose eyelids also as they gazed dropped love.”

Hesiod

Source: The Theogony (c. 700 BC), line 910.

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

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 304.

“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.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 410.

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

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 694.

“It is not possible to deceive or go beyond the will of Zeus.”

Hesiod

Source: The Theogony (c. 700 BC), line 613.

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

Hesiod book Works and Days

οἷ γ᾽ αὐτῷ κακὰ τεύχει ἀνὴρ ἄλλῳ κακὰ τεύχων ἡ δὲ κακὴ βουλὴ τῷ βουλεύσαντι κακίστη. The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it. He for himself weaves woe who weaves for others woe, and evil counsel recoils on the counsellor. https://archive.org/stream/b24865898#page/432/mode/2up Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), lines 265-266

“There was not after all a single kind of strife, but on earth there are two kinds: one of them a man might praise when he recognized her, but the other is blameworthy.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 11.

“Sometimes a day is a step mother, sometimes a mother.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 825.

“Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 311.

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

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 579.

“[Thus] the people pay for the mad folly of their princes who, evilly minded, pervert judgement and give sentence crookedly.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 260.

“Gossip is mischievous, light and easy to raise, but grievous to bear and hard to get rid of. No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it too is a kind of divinity.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 761.

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

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 695.

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

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 342.

“For then it is a bad thing to be righteous — if indeed the unrighteous shall have the greater right.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 271.

“I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words… When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint.”

Hesiod

This quote has been attributed to Hesiod on the internet, and even published with citation as a dubious attribution, but there are no known occurrences of it in his writings.
Misattributed

“But they will give straight judgements to strangers and to the men of the land, and go not aside from what is just, their city flourishes, and the people prosper in it.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 225.

“For a man wins nothing better than a good wife, and, again, nothing worse than a bad one.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 702.

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

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 369.

“Whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years.”

Hesiod

Source: The Theogony (c. 700 BC), line 603.

“For trust and mistrust, alike ruin men.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 372.

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

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 40; often translated as "The half is greater than the whole."

“Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the greater the lading, the greater will be your piled gain, if only the winds will keep back their harmful gales.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 643.

“Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 412.

“Do not seek evil gains; evil gains are the equivalent of disaster.”

Hesiod book Works and Days

Gain not base gains; base gains are the same as losses.
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 352; compare: "the gains of the wicked bring trouble", Book of Proverbs 15:6.

“We know how to speak many falsehoods which resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.”

Hesiod

We know to tell many fictions like to truths, and we know, when we will, to speak what is true.
We know how to tell many lies that pass for truth, and we know, when we wish, to tell the truth itself.
Source: The Theogony (c. 700 BC), lines 27–28. Variant translations:

“On the tongue of such an one they shed a honeyed dew, and from his lips drop gentle words.”

Hesiod

Source: The Theogony (c. 700 BC), line 82.