“Most wise men were agreed that it were best
Not to be born, but if that may not be,
Then with the least delay to reach the goal.”

—  Alexis

Mandragorizomene, Fragment 1, 14.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Most wise men were agreed that it were best Not to be born, but if that may not be, Then with the least delay to reac…" by Alexis?
Alexis photo
Alexis6
Athenian poet of Middle Comedy -372–-270 BC

Related quotes

Adlai Stevenson photo

“Men may be born free; they cannot be born wise; and it is the duty of the university to make the free wise.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

What I Think (1956), p. 55 http://books.google.com/books?id=3OchAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Men+may+be+born+free+they+cannot+be+born+wise+and+it+is+the+duty+of+the+university+to+make+the+free+wise%22&pg=PA55#v=onepage

Warren Farrell photo

“The women who were best able to grow spiritually and psychologically had married men who were the least able to grow.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 71

Confucius photo

“Learn as if you were not reaching your goal and as though you were scared of missing it”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“If men were only as wise as they are clever…”

Sean Russell (1952) author

Source: Sea Without a Shore (1996), Chapter 38 (p. 550)

Bruce Springsteen photo

“The wise men were all fools, what to do?”

Bruce Springsteen (1949) American singer and songwriter

"Last to Die"
Song lyrics, Magic (2007)

Frank Herbert photo

“The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called "spannungsbogen" -- which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

John Gay photo

“Sure men were born to lie, and women to believe them!”

John Gay (1685–1732) English poet and playwright

Lucy, Act II, sc. xiii
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

G. K. Chesterton photo

“About sex especially men are born unbalanced; we might almost say men are born mad. They scarcely reach sanity till they reach sanctity.”

G. K. Chesterton book The Everlasting Man

The Everlasting Man (1925)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

The Ladder of St. Augustine, st. 10.
Source: Good Poems for Hard Times

Related topics