Top 280 Aeschylus Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “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.”

— Aeschylus

Featured in: Moving Quotes, Sorrow Quotes, Adversity Quotes, Pain Quotes, Sadness Quotes

2. “Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.”

— Aeschylus

Featured in: Choices Quotes

3. “In war, truth is the first casualty.”

— Aeschylus

4. “Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.”

— Aeschylus

5. “Tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.”

— Aeschylus

6. “Time brings all things to pass.”

— Aeschylus

7. “Only through suffering do we learn.”

— Aeschylus

8. “There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain.”

— Aeschylus

9. “I have learned to hate all traitors, and there is no disease that I spit on more than treachery.”

— Aeschylus

10. “The words of truth are simple.”

— Aeschylus

11. “Death is easier than a wretched life; and better never to have born than to live and fare badly.”

— Aeschylus

12. “The reward of suffering is experience.”

— Aeschylus

13. “The truth Has to be melted out of our stubborn lives By suffering. Nothing speaks the truth, Nothing tells us how things really are, Nothing forces us to know What we do not want to know Except pain. And this is how the gods declare their love.”

— Aeschylus

14. “Those who would learn must suffer. In our own despair, against our will, wisdom comes to us.”

— Aeschylus

15. “For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one’s life.”

— Aeschylus

16. “Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering.”

— Aeschylus

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

— Aeschylus

18. “Learning comes through pain.”

— Aeschylus

19. “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.”

— Aeschylus

20. “I take my cue from deeds, not words.”

— Aeschylus

21. “And now it goes as it goes and where it ends is Fate. And neither by singeing flesh nor tipping cups of wine nor shedding burning tears can you enchant away the rigid Fury.”

— Aeschylus

22. “Memory is the mother of all wisdom.”

— Aeschylus

23. “Rumours voiced by women come to nothing.”

— Aeschylus

24. “Learning is ever in the freshness of its youth, even for the old.”

— Aeschylus

25. “The laws of a state change with the changing times.”

— Aeschylus

26. “Success is man’s god.”

— Aeschylus

27. “Words are the physicians of a mind diseased.”

— Aeschylus

28. “By suffering comes wisdom.”

— Aeschylus

29. “For in pure maidens, knowing not the marriage-bed, the glance of the eyes sinks from shame.”

— Aeschylus

30. “They sent forth men to battle, But no such men return; And home, to claim their welcome, Come ashes in an urn.”

— Aeschylus

31. “For know that no one is free, except Zeus.”

— Aeschylus

32. “The will was of Zeus, the hand of Hephaestus.”

— Aeschylus

33. “It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.”

— Aeschylus

34. “I have been schooled by my own suffering: I’ve learned the many ways of being purged.”

— Aeschylus

35. “Pleasantest of all ties is the tie of host and guest.”

— Aeschylus

36. “God loves to help him who strives to help himself.”

— Aeschylus

37. “If you will take me as your teacher, you will not kick against the pricks.”

— Aeschylus

38. “Oh, it is easy for the one who stands outside the prison-wall of pain to exhort and teach the one who suffers.”

— Aeschylus

39. “Nothing forces us to know What we do not want to know Except pain.”

— Aeschylus

40. “The air is Zeus, Zeus earth, and Zeus the heaven, Zeus all that is, and what transcends them all.”

— Aeschylus

41. “The act of evil breeds others to follow, young sins in its own likeness.”

— Aeschylus

42. “The so-called mother of the child isn’t the child’s begetter, but only a sort of nursing soil for the new-sown seed. The man, the one on top, is the true parent, while she, a stranger, foster’s a stranger’s sprout.”

— Aeschylus

43. “God is not averse to deceit in a holy cause.”

— Aeschylus

44. “For a single path leads to the house of Hades.”

— Aeschylus

45. “But let the good prevail.”

— Aeschylus

46. “A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.”

— Aeschylus

47. “We spoil ourselves with scruples long as things go well.”

— Aeschylus

48. “Unanimous hatred is the greatest medicine for a human community.”

— Aeschylus

49. “For somehow this is tyranny’s disease, to trust no friends.”

— Aeschylus

50. “To be free from evil thoughts is God’s best gift.”

— Aeschylus