Top 280 Aeschylus Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “Once to die is better than length of days in sorrow without end.”

— Aeschylus

202. “The adulterer dies. An old custom, justice.”

— Aeschylus

203. “Justice, voiceless, unseen, seeth thee when thou sleepest and when thou goest forth and when thou liest down. Continually doth she attend thee, now aslant thy course, now at a later time. These lines are from a section of doubtful or spurious fragments.”

— Aeschylus

204. “There is a limit to the best of health, disease is always a near neighbor.”

— Aeschylus

205. “When evil come on those we dearly love, never shall we betray them.”

— Aeschylus

206. “In few men is it part of nature to respect a friend’s prosperity without begrudging him.”

— Aeschylus

207. “Do not labor uselessly at what helps not at all.”

— Aeschylus

208. “Who holds a power but newly gained is ever stern of mood.”

— Aeschylus

209. “Whoever is just willingly and without compulsion will not lack happiness; he will never be utterly destroyed.”

— Aeschylus

210. “Out of respect, a man must veil his words when talking with a woman, but with a man he can frankly say whatever’s on his mind.”

— Aeschylus

211. “For this our task hath Fate spun without fail to last for ever sure, that we on man weighed down with deeds of hate should follow till the earth his life immure. Nor when he dies can he boast of being truly free.”

— Aeschylus

212. “A curse burns bright on crime.”

— Aeschylus

213. “Death is softer by far than tyranny.”

— Aeschylus

214. “For wherein is life sweet to him who suffers grief?”

— Aeschylus

215. “Give me an answer which is plain to understand.”

— Aeschylus

216. “But to speak ill of people at hand who give no cause for blame, is to assume a right far distinct from justice.”

— Aeschylus

217. “Even the old should learn.”

— Aeschylus

218. “Truly even he errs that is wiser than the wise.”

— Aeschylus

219. “For hostile word let hostile word be paid.”

— Aeschylus

220. “For the marriage bed ordained by fate for men and women is stronger than an oath and guarded by Justice.”

— Aeschylus

221. “Only one accomplishment is beyond both the power and the mercy of the Gods. They cannot make the past as though it had never been.”

— Aeschylus

222. “Cry Sorrow, sorrow – yet let good prevail.”

— Aeschylus

223. “The moving light, rejoicing in its strength, Sped from the pyre of pine, and urged its way, In golden glory, like some strange new sun...”

— Aeschylus

224. “When a tongue fails to send forth appropriate shafts, there might be a word to act as healer of these.”

— Aeschylus

225. “For sufferers it is sweet to know before-hand clearly the pain that still remains for them.”

— Aeschylus

226. “Know yourself and fit yourself to new fashions. For there is a new ruler among the gods.”

— Aeschylus

227. “The misfortunes of mankind are of varied plumage.”

— Aeschylus

228. “Against necessity, against its strength, no one can fight and win.”

— Aeschylus

229. “Still to the sufferer comes, as due from God, a glory that to suffering owes its birth.”

— Aeschylus

230. “You are young and young your rule and you think that the tower in which you live is free from sorrow: from it have I not seen two tyrants thrown? The third, who now is king, I shall yet live to see him fall, of all three most suddenly, most dishonored.”

— Aeschylus

231. “The seed of mortals broods o’er passing things, and hath nought surer than the smoke-cloud’s shadow.”

— Aeschylus

232. “Truly upon mortals cometh swift of foot their evil and his offence upon him that trespasseth against Right.”

— Aeschylus

233. “God’s mouth knows not how to speak falsehood, but he brings to pass every word.”

— Aeschylus

234. “Pain lays not its touch upon a corpse.”

— Aeschylus

235. “Let me attain no envied wealth, let me not plunder cities, neither be taken in turn, and face life in the power of another.”

— Aeschylus

236. “Everyone, to those weaker than themselves, is kind.”

— Aeschylus

237. “I have not need to promise what I cannot do.”

— Aeschylus

238. “For mortal kind taketh thought only for the day, and hath no more surety than the shadow of smoke.”

— Aeschylus

239. “My heart’s a dance of fear.”

— Aeschylus

240. “Overly persuasive a woman’s ordinance spreads far, traveling fast; but fast dying a rumor voiced by a woman perishes.”

— Aeschylus

241. “No bribes. Nothing that passes under the roof of a temple Or under the roof of the mouth, can appease heaven’s anger Or deflect its aim.”

— Aeschylus

242. “What good is it to live a life that brings pains?”

— Aeschylus

243. “Unjustly men hate death, which is the greatest defence against their many ills.”

— Aeschylus

244. “But concern not thou thyself vainly with matters that are of no advantage.”

— Aeschylus

245. “Sophokles is a playwright fascinated in general by people who say no, people who resist compromise, people who make stumbling blocks of themselves, like Antigone or Ajax.”

— Aeschylus

246. “Oaths are not the credit of men but men of oaths.”

— Aeschylus

247. “Report uttered by the people is everywhere of great power.”

— Aeschylus

248. “Yet again, isn’t there something terrible in randomness – the idea that at the very bottom of its calculations, real depravity has no master plan of any kind, it’s just a dreamy whim that slides out of people when they are trapped or bored or too lazy to analyze their own mania.”

— Aeschylus

249. “Making it a valid law to learn by suffering.”

— Aeschylus

250. “God ever works with those who work with will.”

— Aeschylus