ancient Greek poet From Wikiquote, the free quote compendium
Hesiod (Ἡσίοδος Hēsíodos) was an early Greek poet, believed to have lived around the year 700 BC.
He is the best of all who thinks for himself in all things. He, too, is good who takes advice from a wiser (person). But he who neither thinks for himself, nor lays to heart another's wisdom, this is a useless man.’
There was not after all a single kind of strife, but on earth there are two kinds: one of them a man might praise when he recognized her, but the other is blameworthy.
But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full.
line 100.
For full indeed is earth of woes, and full the sea; and in the day as well as night diseases unbidden haunt mankind, silently bearing ills to men, for all-wise Zeus hath taken from them their voice. So utterly impossible is it to escape the will of Zeus.
First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos when he was reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods without sorrow of heart, remote and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them.
But they will give straight judgements to strangers and to the men of the land, and go not aside from what is just, their city flourishes, and the people prosper in it.
line 225.
Often an entire city has suffered because of an evil man.
Variant translation: Oft hath even a whole city reaped the evil fruit of a bad man.
For then it is a bad thing to be righteous — if indeed the unrighteous shall have the greater right.
line 271.
Ἀνδρὸς δ᾽ εὐόρκου γενεὴ μετόπισθεν ἀμείνων.
The generation of the man who swears truly is better thenceforward.
line 285.
Badness you can get easily, in quantity: the road is smooth, and it lies close by. But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it, and rough at first. But when you come to the top, then it is easy, even though it is hard.
This man, I say, is most perfect who shall have understoodeverything for himself, after having devised what may be best afterward and unto the end: and good again is he likewise who shall have complied with one advising him well: but whoso neither himself hath understanding, nor when he hears another, lays it to heart, he on the other hand is a worthless man.
line 293.
Λιμὸς γάρ τοι πάμπαν ἀεργῷ σύμφορος ἀνδρί.
Hunger is altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard.
line 302.
Let it please thee to keep in order a moderate-sized farm, that so thy garners may be full of fruits in their season.
line 304.
Ἔργον δ᾽ οὐδὲν ὄνειδος, ἀεργίη δέ τ᾽ ὄνειδος.
Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.
line 311.
Χρήματα δ᾽ οὐχ ἁρπακτά· θεόσδοτα πολλὸν ἀμείνω.
Wealth should not be seized: god-given wealth is much better.
line 320.
Invite the man that loves thee to a feast, but let alone thine enemy.
line 342.
Πῆμα κακὸς γείτων, ὅσσον τ᾽ ἀγαθὸς μέγ᾽ ὄνειαρ.
A bad neighbor is a misfortune, as much as a good one is a great blessing.
line 346.
μὴ κακὰ κερδαίνειν: κακὰ κέρδεα ἶσ᾽ ἀάτῃσιν
Do not seek evil gains; evil gains are the equivalent of disaster.
Gain not base gains; base gains are the same as losses.
line 352; compare: "the gains of the wicked bring trouble", Book of Proverbs 15:6.
Do not let a flaunting woman coax and cozen and deceive you: she is after your barn. (translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White)
Do not let any sweet-talking woman beguile your good sense with the fascinations of her shape. It’s your barn she's after. (translated by Richmond Lattimore)
Work the work which the gods ordained for men, lest in bitter anguish of spirit you with your wife and children seek your livelihood amongst your neighbours, and they do not heed you.
Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.
line 410.
Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses.
line 412.
Οὐκ αἰεὶ θέρος ἐσσεῖται· ποιεῖσθε καλιάς.
It will not always be summer, build barns.
line 503.
The dawn speeds a man on his journey, and speeds him too in his work.
Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the greater the lading, the greater will be your piled gain, if only the winds will keep back their harmful gales.
line 643.
Μέτρα φυλάσσεσθαι· καιρὸς δ᾽ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἄριστος.
Observe due measure, for right timing is in all things the most important factor.
Bring home a wife to your house when you are of the right age, while you are not far short of thirty years nor much above; this is the right age for marriage.
Gossip is mischievous, light and easy to raise, but grievous to bear and hard to get rid of. No gossip ever dies away entirely, if many people voice it: it too is a kind of divinity.
line 761.
Ἄλλοτε μητρυιὴ πέλει ἡμέρη, ἄλλοτε μήτηρ.
Sometimes a day is a step mother, sometimes a mother.
line 825.
Catalogue of Women or Eoiae
And she conceived and bore to Zeus, who delights in the thunderbolt, two sons, Magnes and Macedon, rejoicing in horses, who dwell round about Pieria and Olympus.
Catalogues of Women and Eoiae 3 (Loeb, H.G. Evelyn-White).
I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint.
This quote has been attributed to Hesiod on the internet, and even published with citation as a dubious attribution, but there are no known occurrences of it in his writings.
The gods have placed sweat as the price of all things.
Perhaps a mistranslation (or loose interpretation) of line 289 of Works and Days, actually:
But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat
"What was at the beginning?" Gigon said of Hesiod, "is the question of history precisely at the point where it turns into philosophy... The question Hesiod poses is no longer about the historical past, but about the beginning of what exists, the question of philosophical origins..." But "history" is wholly out of place here. Hesiod is foreshadowing the step from mythos to logos, and that step was not mediated by history. It bypassed history altogether. It moved from the timelessness of myth to the timelessness of metaphysics.
The Works and Days expressed the present. The new poetry expresses the person in the present, the particular individual and how he is different from others. And celebrates the difference. And as it does so, we can trace a progressive filling out and stretching of the earlier preconscious hypostases into the mindspace of consciousness.