Hesiod book Works and Days
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 260.
Hesiod book Works and Days
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 260.
Hesiod book Works and Days
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 761.
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.
Hesiod book Works and Days
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 271.
“Wealth should not be seized: god-given wealth is much better.”
Hesiod book Works and Days
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 320.
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
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.
Source: The Theogony (c. 700 BC), line 120.
Hesiod book Works and Days
Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 369.
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.
“The gods have placed sweat as the price of all things.”
Perhaps a mistranslation of line 289 of Works and Days, actually:
: But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat
Misattributed
“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."
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 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.”
Source: The Theogony (c. 700 BC), line 82.