Euripides quotes
Euripides (480 BC–406 BC): Athenian tragic playwright. The library holds 42 quotes by Euripides, drawn from Phrixus. Frag, Medea, Hippolytus. Frag and other works. The 42 below are the most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: life, faith, time, family, death, money
The best-known Euripides quotes
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Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
Phrixus. Frag. 927 -
Silence and discretion are specially becoming in a woman, and to remain quietly at home.
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There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.
Iphigenia in Tauris. 721 -
I know, indeed, the evil of that I purpose; but my inclination gets the better of my judgment.
Medea. 1078 -
Who knows but life be that which men call death, And death what men call life?
Phrixus. Frag. 830 -
Silver and gold are not the only coin; virtue too passes current all over the world.
OEdipus. Frag. 546 -
In regard to the affairs of mortals, there is nothing happy throughout.
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The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.
Aegeus. Frag. 7 -
To a father waxing old nothing is dearer than a daughter; sons have spirits of higher pitch, but less inclined to sweet endearing fondness.
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Foolish I deem him who, thinking that his state is blest, rejoices in security; for Fortune, like a man distempered in his senses, leaps now this way, now that, and no man is always fortunate.
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Time will discover everything to posterity; it is a babbler, and speaks even when no question is put.
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Noble in appearance, but this is mere outside; many noble born are base.
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Cowards do not count in battle; they are there, but not in it.
Meleager. Frag. 523 -
Old men’s prayers for death are lying prayers, in which they abuse old age and long extent of life. But when death draws near, not one is willing to die, and age no longer is a burden to them.
Alcestis. 669 -
The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.
Phrixus. Frag. 970 -
To a father waxing old nothing is dearer than a daughter.
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The sorrow of Yesterday is as nothing; that of To-day is bearable; but that of To-morrow is gigantic, because indistinct.
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Try first thyself, and after call in God; For to the worker God himself lends aid.
Hippolytus. Frag. 435 -
Slight not what’s near through aiming at what’s far.
Rhesus. 482 -
Had I succeeded well, I had been reckoned amongst the wise; so ready are we to judge from the event.
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Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks.
Aeolus. Frag. 38 -
Goodness and being in the gods are one; He who imputes ill to them makes them none.
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When good men die their goodness does not perish, But lives though they are gone. As for the bad, All that was theirs dies and is buried with them.
Temenidae. Frag. 734 -
Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.
Phoenix. Frag. 809 -
The gifts of a bad man bring no good with them.
Medea. 618 -
Zeus hates busybodies and those who do too much.
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Slowly but surely withal moveth the might of the gods.
Bacchae. 882 -
Toil, says the proverb, is the sire of fame.
Licymnius. Frag. 477 -
Ignorance of one’s misfortunes is clear gain.
Antiope. Frag. 204 -
Man’s best possession is a sympathetic wife.
Antigone. Frag. 164 -
Thou didst bring me forth for all the Greeks in common, not for thyself alone.
Iphigenia in Aulis. 1386 -
The nobly born must nobly meet his fate.
Alcmene. Frag. 100 -
Ye old men, brief is the space of life allotted to you; pass it as pleasantly as ye can, not grieving from morning till eve. Since time knows not how to preserve our hopes, but, attentive to its own concerns, flies away.
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Among mortals second thoughts are wisest.
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Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.
Alexander. Frag. 44 -
Moderation, the noblest gift of Heaven.
Medea. 636 -
A bad beginning makes a bad ending.
Aeolus. Frag. 32 -
The language of truth is simple.
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A good beginning is half the work.
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Second thoughts are ever wiser.
Hippolytus. Frag. 436 -
Youth holds no society with grief.
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Lady, the sun’s light to our eyes is dear, And fair the tranquil reaches of the sea, And flowery earth in May, and bounding waters; And so right many fair things I might praise; Yet nothing is so radiant and so fair As for souls childless, with desire sore-smitten, To see the light of babes about the house.
Where these quotes come from
- Phrixus. Frag (3 quotes)
- Medea (3 quotes)
- Hippolytus. Frag (2 quotes)
- Aeolus. Frag (2 quotes)
- Iphigenia in Tauris (1 quote)
- OEdipus. Frag (1 quote)
- Aegeus. Frag (1 quote)
- Meleager. Frag (1 quote)
Every quote comes from a public-domain edition. How the library was made .