Top 40 Solon Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Learn to obey before you command.”

— Solon

2. “I grow old learning something new every day.”

— Solon

3. “Laws are like spider’s webs: If some poor weak creature comes up against them, it is caught; but a big one can break through and get away.”

— Solon

4. “Seek to learn constantly while you live; do not wait in the faith that old age by itself will bring wisdom.”

— Solon

5. “Call no man happy until he is dead.”

— Solon

6. “He who has learned how to obey will know how to command.”

— Solon

Featured in: Leadership Quotes

7. “Rich people without wisdom and learning are but sheep with golden fleeces.”

— Solon

8. “In all things let reason be your guide.”

— Solon

9. “Chide a friend in private and praise him in public.”

— Solon

10. “Often the wicked prosper, while the righteous starve; yet I would never exchange my state for theirs, my virtue for their gold. For mine endures, while riches change their owner every day.”

— Solon

11. “Speech is the mirror of action.”

— Solon

12. “The ideal state is that in which an injury done to the least of its citizens is an injury done to all.”

— Solon

13. “Pure chastity is beauty to our souls, grace to our bodies, and peace to our desires.”

— Solon

14. “Justice, even if slow, is sure.”

— Solon

15. “In giving advice seek to help, not to please, your friend.”

— Solon

16. “Let no man be called happy before his death. Till then, he is not happy, only lucky.”

— Solon

17. “Count no man happy until the end is known.”

— Solon

18. “True blessedness consisteth in a good life and a happy death.”

— Solon

19. “Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.”

— Solon

20. “Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.”

— Solon

21. “Angels are winged with God’s power.”

— Solon

22. “If all men were to bring their miseries together in one place, most would be glad to take each his own home again rather than take a portion out of the common stock.”

— Solon

23. “As I grow older, I constantly learn more.”

— Solon

24. “Laws are like spiders webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape.”

— Solon

25. “Many bad men are rich, many good men are poor; but we shall not exchange wealth for honour, for money flits from man to man but honour abides forever.”

— Solon

26. “No fool can be silent at a feast.”

— Solon

27. “Honors achieved far exceed those that are created.”

— Solon

28. “Rule, after you have first learned to submit to rule.”

— Solon

29. “No more good must be attempted than the nation can bear.”

— Solon

30. “For often evil men are rich, and good men poor; But we will not exchange with them Our virtue for their wealth since one abides always, While riches change their owners every day.”

— Solon

31. “Poets tell many lies.”

— Solon

32. “In the ideal State laws are few and simple, because they have been derived from certainties. In the corrupt State laws are many and confused, because they have been derived from uncertainties.”

— Solon

33. “Satiety comes of riches and contumaciousness of satiety.”

— Solon

34. “That city in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.”

— Solon

35. “Wealth breeds satiety, satiety outrage.”

— Solon

36. “Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath.”

— Solon

37. “Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them; and I shall so frame my laws that it will be evident to the Athenians that it will be for their interest to observe them.”

— Solon

38. “Say nothing but good of the dead.”

— Solon

39. “Wealth I desire to have; but wrongfully to get it, I do not wish.”

— Solon

40. “Watch well each separate citizen, Lest having in his heart of hearts A secret spear, one still may come Saluting you with cheerful face, And utter with a double tongue The feigned good wishes of his wary mind.”

— Solon

41. “What thou seest, speak of with caution.”

— Solon

42. “He that will sell his fame will also sell the public interest.”

— Solon

43. “If things are going well, religion and legislation are beneficial; if not, they are of no avail.”

— Solon

44. “No man is happy; he is at best fortunate.”

— Solon

45. “If through your vices you afflicted are, Lay not the blame of your distress on God; You made your rulers mighty, gave them guards, So now you groan ’neath slavery’s heavy rod.”

— Solon

46. “To make an empire durable, the magistrates must obey the laws and the people the magistrates.”

— Solon

47. “Men keep their engagements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them.”

— Solon

48. “Reprove thy friend privately: commend him publicly.”

— Solon