Quotes from work
Agamemnon

AeschylusOriginal title Ἀγαμέμνων

“Zeus, who guided mortals to be wise,
has established his fixed law—
wisdom comes through suffering.
Trouble, with its memories of pain,
drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,
so men against their will
learn to practice moderation.
Favours come to us from gods
seated on their solemn thrones—
such grace is harsh and violent.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Variant translations: Zeus has led us on to know, the Helmsman lays it down as law that we must suffer, suffer into truth. We cannot sleep, and drop by drop at the heart the pain of pain remembered comes again, and we resist, but ripeness comes as well. From the gods enthroned on the awesome rowing-bench there comes a violent love. Robert Fagles, The Oresteia (1975) God, whose law it is that he who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despite, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way (1930), pp. 61 and 194 ( Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=D3QwvF3GWOkC&lpg=PA61&ots=BacvHvGm6e&dq=%22And%20in%20our%20own%20despite%2C%20against%20our%20will%2C%20Comes%20wisdom%22%20-kennedy&pg=PA194#v=onepage&q=%22our%20own%20despite%22&f=false) Robert F. Kennedy quoted these lines in his speech announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on 4 April 1968. His version http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rfkonmlkdeath.html: Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. Variant translations of πάθει μάθος: By suffering comes wisdom. The reward of suffering is experience. Wisdom comes alone through suffering. Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 176–183, as translated by Ian Johnston ( Google Books https://books.google.com/books?id=qz1HpBZ1fTwC&lpg=PA13&ots=C7aohrZRF1&dq=Drips%20in%20our%20hearts%20as%20we%20try%20to%20sleep%2C&pg=PA13#v=onepage&q=Drips%20in%20our%20hearts%20as%20we%20try%20to%20sleep,&f=false)

“Do not kick against the pricks.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, line 1624

“Thou shalt learn,
Late though it be, the lesson to be wise.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, line 1425 (tr. E. H. Plumptre)

“I think the slain care little if they sleep or rise again.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

trans. https://archive.org/stream/agamemnonofaesch015545mbp/agamemnonofaesch015545mbp#page/n38/mode/1up Gilbert Murray Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon

“The show of weeping and of ruth
To the forlorn will all men pay,
But of the grief their eyes display,
Nought to the heart doth pierce its way.
And, with the joyous, they beguile
Their lips unto a feigned smile.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 790–794 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

“May Morning, as the proverb runs, appear
Bearing glad tidings from his mother Night!”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 264–265 (tr. E. H. Plumptre)

“Oh me, I have been struck a mortal blow right inside.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, line 1343

“Quickly, with rapid steps, too credulous,
The limit which a woman sets to trust
Advances evermore; And with swift doom of death
A rumour spread by woman perishes.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, line 485–487 (tr. E. H. Plumptre)

“Within one cup pour vinegar and oil,
And look! unblent, unreconciled, they war.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 322–323 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

“God on high
Looks graciously on him whom triumph's hour
Has made not pitiless.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 951–952 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

“I, of set will, speak words the wise may learn,
To others, nought remember nor discern.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 38–39 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

“But as he willed 'tis ordered all,
And woes, by heaven ordained, must fall—
Unsoothed by tears or spilth of wine
Poured forth too late, the wrath divine
Glares vengeance on the flameless shrine.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 68–71 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

“Too true it is! our mortal state
With bliss is never satiate.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 1331–1332 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)

“The jealous poison, lodged within the heart,
Tortures with twofold pang whom it infects;
By his own griefs oppressed, the envious man
Groans also to behold another's joy.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 834–837

“Dangerous is a people's voice charged with wrath.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, line 456 (tr. Herbert Weir Smyth)

“Life envy-free is life unenviable.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

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

“Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, line 1485

“But ancient Arrogance, or soon or late,
When strikes the hour ordained by Fate,
Breedeth new Arrogance, which still
Revels, wild wantoner in human ill.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Φιλεῖ δὲ τίκτειν Ὕβρις
μὲν παλαιὰ νεά-
ζουσαν ἐν κακοῖς βροτῶν
Ὕβριν τότ' ἢ τόθ', ὅτε τὸ κύριον μόλῃ.
Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 763–766 (tr. Anna Swanwick)

“It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 832–833

“Ah state of mortal man! in time of weal,
A line, a shadow! and if ill fate fall,
One wet sponge-sweep wipes all our trace away.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon, lines 1327–1329 (tr. E. D. A. Morshead)