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Pindar Quotes

Pindar was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is by far the greatest, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich exuberance of his language and matter, and his rolling flood of eloquence, characteristics which, as Horace rightly held, make him inimitable." His poems can also, however, seem difficult and even peculiar. The Athenian comic playwright Eupolis once remarked that they "are already reduced to silence by the disinclination of the multitude for elegant learning". Some scholars in the modern age also found his poetry perplexing, at least until the 1896 discovery of some poems by his rival Bacchylides; comparisons of their work showed that many of Pindar's idiosyncrasies are typical of archaic genres rather than of only the poet himself. His poetry, while admired by critics, still challenges the casual reader and his work is largely unread among the general public.Pindar was the first Greek poet to reflect on the nature of poetry and on the poet's role. Like other poets of the Archaic Age, he has a profound sense of the vicissitudes of life, but he also articulates a passionate faith in what men can achieve by the grace of the gods, most famously expressed in the conclusion to one of his Victory Odes:



His poetry illustrates the beliefs and values of Archaic Greece at the dawn of the classical period. Wikipedia  

✵ 517 BC – 437 BC
Pindar photo

Works

Pindar: 13 quotes17 likes

Famous Pindar Quotes

“Here profits not
To tell the whole truth with clear face unveiled.
Often is man's best wisdom to be silent.”

Pindar

οὔ τοι ἅπασα κερδίων
φαίνοισα πρόσωπον ἀλάθει᾽ ἀτρεκής·
καὶ τὸ σιγᾶν πολλάκις ἐστὶ σοφώτατον ἀνθρώπῳ νοῆσαι.
Nemean 5, line 16-8; page 222. (483 BC?)

“Creatures of a day! What is a man?
What is he not? A dream of a shadow
Is our mortal being.”

Pindar

Pythian 8, line 95-8; pages 162-3. (446 BC)
Context: Creatures of a day! What is a man?
What is he not? A dream of a shadow
Is our mortal being. But when there comes to men
A gleam of splendour given of Heaven,
Then rests on them a light of glory
And blesséd are their days.

“A good deed hidden in silence dies.”

Pindar

Fragment 121; page 387

“Do not yearn, O my soul, for immortal life!
Use to the utmost
the skill that is yours.”

Pindar

Pythian 3, line 61-62.
Variant translation: Seek not, my soul, immortal life, but make the most of the resources that are within your reach.

“Law, the king of all mortals and immortals.”

Pindar

As quoted in Plato's Gorgias, 484b.

“Days to come will prove the surest witness.”

Pindar book Olympic Odes

ἁμέραι δ᾽ ἐπίλοιποι
μάρτυρες σοφώτατοι.
Olympian 1, line 33-4; page 4
Olympian Odes (476 BC)

Pindar Quotes

“But if a man shall hope in aught he does
To escape the eyes of god, he makes an error.”

Pindar book Olympic Odes

Olympian 1, line 63; page 6
Olympian Odes (476 BC)

“Whoever knows many things
By nature is a poet.”

Pindar book Olympic Odes

Olympian 2, line 87; page 16; the Greek simply says:
"wise is one who knows much by nature," but σοφός is Pindar's usual word for poet.
Variant translations:
Inborn of nature's wisdom
The poet's truth.
Olympian Odes (476 BC)

“Best blessing of all is water, And gold like a fiery flame gleaming at night,
Supreme amidst the pride of lordly wealth.”

Pindar book Olympic Odes

Ἄριστον μὲν ὕδωρ, ὁ δὲ χρυσὸς αἰθόμενον πῦρ ἅτε διαπρέπει
νυκτὶ μεγάνορος ἔξοχα πλούτου.
Olympian 1, line 1-2; page 1
Closer translation:
Best is water, but gold stands out blazing like fire
at night beyond haughty wealth.
Olympian Odes (476 BC)

“War is sweet to those who have no experience of it,
but the experienced man trembles exceedingly at heart on its approach.”

Pindar

γλυκύ δ᾽ἀπείρῳ πόλεμος.
πεπειραμένων δέ τις ταρβεῖ προσιόντα νιν καρδία περισσῶς.
Fragment 110; page 377.
Variant translations: This phrase is the origin of the Latin proverb "Dulce bellum inexpertis" which is sometimes misattributed to Desiderius Erasmus‎.
War is sweet to them that know it not.
War is sweet to those not acquainted with it
War is sweet to those who do not know it.
War is sweet to those that never have experienced it.
War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it.

“For words
Live longer down the years than deeds.”

Pindar

Nemean 4, line 6; page 213. (473 BC?)

“Become such as you are, having learned what that is”

Pindar

Pythian 2, line 72.
Variant translations:
Be what you know you are
Be true to thyself now that thou hast learnt what manner of man thou art
Having learned, become who you are

“Time is the best preserver of righteous men.”

Pindar

Fragment 159; page 387

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