Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Theognis, aka Theognis of Megara NULL

Greek Elegiac, Gnomic Lyric Poet

"What fools men are to weep the dead and gone! Unwept, youth drops its petals one by one."

"He who mistrusts most should be trusted least."

"Nothing in excess; moderation is best in all things."

"Rash, angry words, and spoken out of season, when passion has usurp'd the throne of reason, have ruin'd many. Passion is unjust, and for an idle, transitory gust of gratified revenge, dooms us to pay with long repentence at a later day."

"Fairly examined, truly understood, no man is wholly bad, nor wholly good."

"A couch of thorns, or an embroidered bed, are matters of indifference to the dead."

"Adopt the character of the twisting octopus, which takes on the appearance of the nearby rock. Now follow in this direction, now turn a different hue."

"Bright youth passes swiftly as a thought."

"Even to a wicked man a divinity gives wealth, Cyrus, but to few men comes the gift of excellence."

"Give me a man who understands my moods, who brother-like, understands my grouchiness. If you will give your mind to what I say, dear friend, you will remember me one day."

"Happy the lover who exercises, then goes home to sleep all day with a handsome boy."

"I heard the voice of that bird, son of Polypas, whose piercing outcry and whose arrival announces to men the season when fields are plowed, and the voice of her broke the heart that darkens within me, since other men possess my flourishing acres now, and not for me are the mules dragging the plow through the grainland, since I have given my heart to the restless seafarer's life."

"No man takes with him to Hades all his exceeding wealth."

"One finds many companions for food and drink, but in a serious business a man's companions are few."

"Ploutos, no wonder mortals worship you: You are so tolerant of their sins!"

"Surfeit begets insolence, when prosperity comes to a bad man."

"The best of all things for earthly men is not to be born and not to see the beams of the bright sun; but if born, than as quickly as possible to pass the gates of Hades, and to lie deep buried."

"Too many tongues have gates which fly apart too easily, and care for many things that don?t concern them."

"Unless the gods deceive my mind, that man is forging fetters for himself."

"What is beautiful is loved, and what is not is unloved."

"Whatever fate ordains, danger or hurt, or death predetermined, nothing can avert."

"Wine is wont to show the mind of man."