Hesiod Quotes

We know how to speak many falsehoods that resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.

Bring a wife home to your house when you are of the right age, not far short of 30 years, nor much above; this is the right time for marriage.

He fashions evil for himself who does evil to another, and an evil plan does mischief to the planner.

For both faith and want of faith have destroyed men alike.

Better marry a maiden, so you can teach her good manners, and in particular marry one who lives close by you. Look her well over first. Don’t marry what will make your neighbors laugh at you, for while there’s nothing better a man can win him than a good wife, there’s nothing more dismal than a bad one.

Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things the most important factor.

For here now is the age of iron. Never by daytime will there be an end to hard work and pain, nor in the night to weariness, when the gods will send anxieties to trouble us.

It is best to do things systematically, since we are only human, and disorder is our worst enemy.

Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.

When you deal with your brother, be pleasant, but get a witness.

But he who neither thinks for himself nor learns from others, is a failure as a man.

Potter is jealous of potter, and craftsman of craftsman; and the poor have a grudge against the poor, and the poet against the poet.

Whoever happens to give birth to mischievous children lives always with unending grief in his spirit and heart.

But they who give straight judgements to strangers and to those of the land and do not transgress what is just, for them the city flourishes and its people prosper.

Preserve the mean; the opportune moment is best in all things.

Whoever has trusted a woman has trusted deceivers.

A bad neighbor is as great a calamity as a good one is a great advantage.

It is not possible either to trick or escape the mind of Zeus.

Do not gain basely; base gain is equal to ruin.

So the people will pay the penalty for their kings’ presumption, who, by devising evil, turn justice from her path with tortuous speech.

Whoever, fleeing marriage and the sorrows that women cause, does not wish to wed comes to a deadly old age.

Do not let a flattering woman coax and wheedle you and deceive you; she is after your barn.

So you, the kings, you too must reflect upon this punishment, because the immortals are here in the midst of manking, observing those who do not hold the gods in awe…but grind each other down with crooked judgements

He is senseless who would match himself against a stronger man; for he is deprived of victory and adds suffering to disgrace.

Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.

A man who works evil against another works it really against himself, and bad advice is worst for the one who devised it.

Justice prevails over transgression when she comes to the end of the race.

Do not let any sweet-talking woman beguile your good sense with the fascination of her shape. It’s your barn she’s after.

He’s only harming himself who’s bent upon harming another

Mortals grow swiftly in misfortune.

The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest.