The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles Quotes

“Do not let any sweet-talking woman beguile your good sense with the fascination of her shape. It's your barn she's after.”
― Hesiod, The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

“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.”
― Hesiod, The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

“Never wade through the pretty ripples
of perpetually flowing
rivers, until you have looked at their lovely waters,
and prayed to them,
and washed your hands in the pale enchanting water.”
― Hesiod, The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

“I mean you well, Perses, you great idiot, and I will tell you. Look, badness is easy to have, you can take it by handfuls without effort. The road that way is smooth and starts here beside you. But between us and virtue the immortals have put what will make us sweat. The road to virtue is long and goes steep up hill, hard climbing at first, but the last of it, when you get to the summit (if you get there) is easy going after the hard part.”
― Hesiod, The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

“Badness can be got easily and in shoals; the road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows;”
― Hesiod, The Complete Hesiod Collection

“If anything, which ought not to happen, happens in your neighborhood, neighbors come as they are to help; relatives dress first.”
― Hesiod, The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

“It is best to work, at whatever you have a talent for doing, without turning your greedy thought toward what some other man possesses, but take care of your own livelihood, as I advise you.”
― Hesiod, The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

“He does mischief to himself who does mischief to another, and evil planned harms the plotter most.”
― Hesiod, The Complete Hesiod Collection

“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.”
― Hesiod, The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

“It is fine to draw on what is on hand, and painful to have need and not have anything there; I warn you to be carful in this. When the bottle has just been opened, and when it's giving out, drink deep; be sparing when it's half-full; but it's useless to spare the fag end.”
― Hesiod, The Works and Days / Theogony / The Shield of Herakles

“Їх є три тисячі Океанід тих, дів струнконогих.
По суходолу вони та в глибинах солоного моря,
Світле потомство богинь, усюди порозселялись.
Стілький й інших є Рік шумковлинних, синів Океана,
Що привела їх на світ достойна пошани Тетіда.
Смертній людині годі усі ті ймена хзні знати,
Кожен знає своїх, при яких він живе, поіменно.”
― Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, and the Shield of Heracles