Euripides

Euripides (Greek: Εὐριπίδης; c. 480 BC–406 BC) was a Greek playwright.

Quotes

ἁγὼ οὔτινι θύω πλὴν ἐμοὶ, θεοῖσι δ᾽ οὔ,
καὶ τῇ μεγίστῃ γαστρὶ τῇδε δαιμόνων.
- I sacrifice to no god save myself —
  And to my belly, greatest of deities.
- Cyclops (c. 424-23 BC) l. 334 (ed. B. E. Stevenson, 1948)
  To what other God but to myself
  And this great belly, first of deities,
  Should I be bound to sacrifice?
  (tr. P. B. Shelley, wr. 1819; pub. 1824)

I care for riches, to make gifts
To friends, or lead a sick man back to health
With ease and plenty. Else small aid is wealth
For daily gladness; once a man be done
With hunger, rich and poor are all as one.
- Electra (413 BC) l. ? (tr. Gilbert Murray, 1906)

On behalf of all those dead
who learned their hatred of women long ago,
for those who hate them now, for those unborn
who shall live to hate them yet, I now declare
my firm conviction: neither earth nor ocean
produces a creature as savage and monstrous
as woman.
- Hecuba (424 BC), ll. 1177-1182 (tr. William Arrowsmith, 1956)
  Let me tell you, if anyone in the past has spoken
  ill of women, or speaks so now or will speak so
  in the future, I’ll sum it up for him: Neither sea
  nor land has ever produced a more monstrous
  creature than woman.
  (tr. Jay Kardan and Laura-Gray Street, 2011, in Didaskalia, vol. 8 no. 32)

λόγος γάρ ἐστιν οὐκ ἐμός, σοφὸν δ᾽ ἔπος,
δεινῆς ἀνάγκης οὐδὲν ἰσχύειν πλέον.
- Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.
- Helen (412 BC), l. 510 (tr. Richmond Lattimore, 1956), quoting "a saying"

Man's most valuable trait
is a judicious sense of what not to believe.
- Helen, ll. 1617-1618 (tr. Richmond Lattimore, 1956)
  There is naught more serviceable to mankind than a prudent distrust. (tr. E. P. Coleridge, 1891)

Who can decide a plea or judge a speech until he has heard plainly from both sides?
- Heraclidæ (c. 428 BC), ll. 179-180 (tr. David Kovacs), quoted by Aristophanes in The Wasps
  In case of dissension, never dare to judge till you've heard the other side. —Forbes, vol. 86 no. 10 (15 Nov. 1960) p. 70

Leave no stone unturned.
- Heraclidæ (c. 428 BC), l. 1002 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Ares hates those who hesitate.
- Heraclidæ (c. 428 BC), l. 722 (ed. H. L. Mencken, 1942, '60)
  Ares hates the sluggard most of all. (tr. David Kovacs)

Yet do I hold that mortal foolish who strives against the stress of necessity.
- Hercules Furens, l. 281 (Bartlett's, 1892)

O lady, nobility is thine, and thy form is the reflection of thy nature!
- Ion (c. 421-408 BC) l. 238 (tr. E. F. Burr, 1880)

Authority is never without hate.
- Ion (c. 421-408 BC) l. ? (tr. Ronald F. Willetts, 1958)

Thou didst bring me forth for all the Greeks in common, not for thyself alone.
- Iphigenia in Aulis, l. 1386 (Bartlett's, 1892)

A coward turns away, but a brave man's choice is danger.
- Iphigenia in Tauris (c. 412 BC) l. 114 (tr. Richmond Lattimore, 1956)

There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.
- Iphigenia in Tauris (c. 412 BC) l. 721 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Slight not what's near through aiming at what's far.
- Rhesus (c. 435 BC) l. 482 (Bartlett's, 1892)

For naught is there more sweet unto an aged sire than a daughter's love.
- The Suppliants (tr. E. P. Coleridge, 1891)

Naught is more hostile to a city than a despot; where he is, there are in the first place no laws common to all, but one man is tyrant, in whose keeping and in his alone the law resides, and in that case equality is at an end.
- The Suppliants (tr. E. P. Coleridge, 1891)

Helen: What happened in my heart, to make me leave my home
And my own land, to follow where a stranger led?
Rail at the goddess; be more resolute than Zeus,
Who holds power over all other divinities
But is himself the slave of love. Show Aphrodite
Your indignation; me, pardon and sympathy.
Hecabe: No; Paris was an extremely handsome man – one look,
And your appetite became your Aphrodite. Why,
Men's lawless lusts are all called love – it's a confusion
Easily made.
- Troades (c. 415 BC), ll. 946–950 and 987–990 (tr. Philip Vellacott, 1954)

Alcestis (438 BC)

Never say that marriage has more of joy than pain.
- l. 238 (tr. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, 1960)

A second wife
is hateful to the children of the first,
a viper is not more hateful.
- l. 309 (tr. Fitts and Fitzgerald, 1960)

Oh, if I had Orpheus' voice and poetry
with which to move the Dark Maid and her Lord,
I'd call you back, dear love, from the world below.
I'd go down there for you. Charôn or the grim
King's dog could not prevent me then
from carrying you up into the fields of light.
- l. 358 (tr. Fitts and Fitzgerald, 1960)

Κούφα σοι χθὼν ἐπάνωθε πέσοι.
- Light be the earth upon you, lightly rest.
- l. 462 (tr. Fitts and Fitzgerald, 1960)

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.
- l. 669 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Dishonour will not trouble me, once I am dead.
- l. 726 (tr. Fitts and Fitzgerald, 1960)

No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow.
- ll. 783-4 (tr. Robert and Mary Collison, 1980)

Today's today. Tomorrow we may be
Ourselves gone down the drain of Eternity.
- l. 788 (tr. Fitts and Fitzgerald, 1960)

I have found power in the mysteries of thought,
Exaltation in the changing of the Muses;
I have been versed in the reasonings of men;
But Fate is stronger than anything I have known.
- l. 962 (tr. Fitts and Fitzgerald, 1960)

Time cancels young pain.
- l. 1085 (tr. Fitts and Fitzgerald, 1960)

Medea (431 BC)

Of all things upon earth that bleed and grow,
A herb most bruised is woman.
- Lines 230–231 (tr. Gilbert Murray, 1912)

The fountains of sacred rivers flow upwards.
- Line 409 (Cassell's, 1907)

The gifts of a bad man bring no good with them.
- Line 618 (Bartlett's, 1892)

When love is in excess it brings a man nor honor nor any worthiness.
- Line 627 (Bartlett's, 1968)

Moderation, the noblest gift of Heaven.
- Line 636 (tr. Georgiana Chatterton, 1863)

Of troubles none is greater than to be robbed of one’s native land.
- Line 653 (tr. David Kovacs)
  For nothing is like the sorrow or supersedes the sadness of losing your native land. (tr. Paul Roche, 1974)

πείθειν δῶρα καὶ θεοὺς λόγος
- It is said that gifts persuade even the gods.
- Line 964 (Cassell's, 1907)

I know, indeed, the evil of that I purpose; but my inclination gets the better of my judgment.
- Line 1078 (Bartlett's, 1892)

χαλεπὰ γὰρ βροτοῖς ὁμογενῆ μιά-
σματ᾽, ἕπεται δ᾽ ἅμ᾽ αὐτοφόνταις ξυνῳ-
δὰ θεόθεν πίτνοντ᾽ ἐπὶ δόμοις ἄχη.
- Grievous for mortals is the stain of kindred blood. For the murderers are dogged by woes harmonious with their deeds, sent by the gods upon their houses.
- Lines 1268-1270 (tr. David Kovacs)

Hippolytus (428 BC)

μόνον δὲ τοῦτό φασ᾽ ἁμιλλᾶσθαι βίῳ,
γνώμην δικαίαν κἀγαθήν ὅτῳ παρῇ
- Only one thing, they say, competes in value with life, the possession of a heart blameless and good.
- ll. 426-427 (tr. David Kovacs)

In this world second thoughts, it seems, are best.
- l. 436 (tr. David Grene, 1942)
  Among mortals second thoughts are the wisest. (tr. T. A. W. Buckley, 1850)
  Second thoughts are ever wiser. (Bartlett's, 1892)
  Among mortals second thoughts are wisest. (Hoyt's, 1882)

ἡ γλῶσσ᾽ ὀμώμοχ᾽, ἡ δὲ φρὴν ἀνώμοτος
- 'Twas but my tongue, 'twas not my soul that swore.
- l. 612 (tr. Gilbert Murray, 1902)
  My tongue swore, but my mind was still unpledged. (tr. David Grene, 1942)

The credit we get for wisdom is measured by our success.
- l. 701 (tr. E. P. Coleridge, 1891)

Orestes (408 BC)

Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.
- l. 298 (tr. William Arrowsmith, 1958)

Ὅταν γὰρ ἡδὺς τοῖς λόγοις, φρονῶν κακῶς
πείθῃ τὸ πλῆθος, τῇ πόλει κακὸν μέγα.
- When one with honeyed words but evil mind
  Persuades the mob, great woes befall the state.
- l. 907 (Harbottle's, 1897)

The Phoenician Women

ἓν μὲν μέγιστον, οὐκ ἔχει παρρησίαν.
But this is slavery, not to speak one’s thought.
- Line 392, Jocasta (tr. Elizabeth Wyckoff, 1958)
  Who dares not speak his free thoughts is a slave. (tr. R. Potter, 1823)

ἁπλοῦς ὁ μῦθος τῆς ἀληθείας ἔφυ,
κοὐ ποικίλων δεῖ τἄνδιχ᾽ ἑρμηνευμάτων
- The words of truth are simple, and justice needs no subtle interpretations, for it hath a fitness in itself.
- Lines 469–470 (tr. E. P. Coleridge, 1891)

The Bacchae (405 BC)

But cleverness is not wisdom, nor is the thinking on things unfit for mortals.
- Line 395 (tr. T. A. W. Buckley, 1850)

Dionysus: He who believes needs no explanation.
Pentheus: What's the worth in believing worthless things?
Dionysus: Much worth, but not worth telling you, it seems.
- Line 472 (tr. Colin Teevan, 2002)

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
- Lines 479-480 (tr. William Arrowsmith, 1958)
  To the fool, he who speaks wisdom will sound foolish. (Bartlett's, 13th ed. 1955)
  
  He were a fool, methinks, who would utter wisdom to a fool. (tr. E. P. Coleridge, 1891)
  
  Wise words being brought to blinded eyes will seem as things of nought. (tr. Gilbert Murray, 1902)

Slow but sure moves the might of the gods.
- Line 882 (Bartlett's, 14th ed. 1968)
  Slowly but surely withal moveth the might of the gods. (Bartlett's, 9th ed. 1892)

χρηστοῖσι δούλοις συμφορὰ τὰ δεσποτῶν.
- The misfortunes of their masters are a concern to good servants.
- Line 1028 (tr. T. A. W. Buckley, 1850) note: the original sentence does not contain any verb

Humility, a sense of reverence before the sons of heaven — of all the prizes that a mortal man might win, these, I say, are wisest; these are best.
- Line 1150 (tr. William Arrowsmith, 1958)

Fragments

The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.
- Ægeus, frag. 7 (Bartlett's, 9th ed. 1892)

κακὸν γυναῖκα πρὸς νέαν ζεῦξαι νέον·
μακρὰ γὰρ ἰσχὺς μᾶλλον ἀρσένων μένει,
θήλεια δ' ἥβη θᾶσσον ἐκλείπει δέμας.
- To mate a youth with a young wife is ill;
  Seeing a man's strength lasteth, while the bloom
  Of beauty quickly leaves a woman's form.
- Æolus, frag. 22 (tr. J. A. Symonds, 1879)

A bad beginning makes a bad ending.
- Æolus, frag. 32 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he speaks.
- Æolus, frag. 38 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Φεῦ φεῦ, παλαιὸς αἶνος ὡς καλῶς ἔχει·
γέροντες οὐδέν ἐσμεν ἄλλο πλὴν ψόφος
καὶ σχῆμ', ὀνείρων δ᾽ ἕρπομεν μιμήματα·
νοῦς δ᾽ οὐκ ἔνεστιν, οἰόμεσθα δ᾽ εὐ φρονεῖν.
- Alas, how right the ancient saying is:
  We, who are old, are nothing else but noise
  And shape. Like mimicries of dreams we go,
  And have no wits, although we think us wise.
- Æolus, frag. (tr. C. M. Bowra, 1938)

The nobly born must nobly meet his fate.
- Alcmene, frag. 100 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Waste not fresh tears over old griefs.
- Alexander, frag. 44 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Ἡδύ τοι σωθέντα μεμνῆσθαι πόνων.
- Sweet is the remembrance of troubles when you are in safety.
- Andromeda, frag. 10, l. 2 (Cassell's, 1907)

ὅσοι γὰρ εἰς ἔρωτα πίπτουσιν βροτῶν
ἐσθλῶν ὅταν τύχωσι τῶν ἐρωμένων
οὐκ ἔσθ' ὁποίας λείπεται τῆς ἡδονῆς.
- When it befalls poor mortal men to love,
  Should they find worthy objects for their loving,
  Then is there nothing left of joy to long for.
- Andromeda, frag. 147 (tr. J. A. Symonds, 1879)

Woman is woman's natural ally.
- Alope, frag. 109 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Man's best possession is a sympathetic wife.
- Antigone, frag. 164 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Ignorance of one's misfortunes is clear gain.
- Antiope, frag. 204 (Bartlett's, 1892); cf. Davenant

Events will take their course, it is no good of being angry at them; he is happiest who wisely turns them to the best account.
- Bellerophon, frag. 298, in Plutarch, Moralia, "De tranquillitate animi" (tr. A. R. Shilleto, 1888)

Φησίν τις εἶναι δῆτ᾽ ἐν οὐρανῷ θεούς;
οὐκ εἰσίν, οὐκ εἴσ᾽, εἴ τις ἀνθρώπων θέλει
μὴ τῷ παλαιῷ μῶρος ὢν χρῆσθαι λόγῳ.
σκέψασθε δ᾽ αὐτοί, μὴ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐμοῖς λόγοις
γνώμην ἔχοντες. φήμ᾽ ἐγὼ τυραννίδα
κτείνειν τε πλείστους κτημάτων τ᾿ ἀποστερεῖν
ὅρκους τε παραβαίνοντας ἐκπορθεῖν πόλεις·
καὶ ταῦτα δρῶντες μᾶλλόν εἰσ᾽ εὐδαίμονες.
τῶν εὐσεβούντων ἡσυχῇ καθ᾽ ἡμέραν.
πόλεις τε μικρὰς οἶδα τιμώσας θεούς,
αἳ μειζόνων κλύουσι δυσσεβεστέρων
λόγχης ἀριθμῷ πλείονος κρατούμεναι.
οἶμαι δ᾽ ἂν ὑμᾶς, εἴ τις ἀργὸς ὢν θεοῖς
εὔχοιτο καὶ μὴ χειρὶ συλλέγοι βίον,
μαθεῖν ἂν ὡς οὐκ εἰσίν. αἱ δ᾽ εὐπραξίαι
τὰ θεῖα πυργοῦσ᾽ αἱ κακαί τε συμφοραί.
- Doth some one say that there be gods above?
  There are not; no, there are not. Let no fool,
  Led by the old false fable, thus deceive you.
  Look at the facts themselves, yielding my words
  No undue credence: for I say that kings
  Kill, rob, break oaths, lay cities waste by fraud,
  And doing thus are happier than those
  Who live calm pious lives day after day.
  How many little States that serve the gods
  Are subject to the godless but more strong,
  Made slaves by might of a superior army!
  And you, if any ceased from work and prayed
  To gods, nor gathered in his livelihood,
  Would learn gods are not. All Divinity
  Is built up from our good and evil luck.
- Bellerophon, frag. (tr. J. A. Symonds, 1879; rev. C. M. Bowra, 1938)

Try first thyself, and after call in God;
For to the worker God himself lends aid.
- Hippolytus, frag. 435 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Toil, says the proverb, is the sire of fame.
- Licymnius, frag. 477 (Bartlett's, 1892)

A bad ending follows a bad beginning.
- Melanippe the Wise, frag. (tr. E. F. Burr, 1880)

Cowards do not count in battle; they are there, but not in it.
- Meleager frag. 523 (Bartlett's, 1892)

A woman should be good for everything at home, but abroad good for nothing.
- Meleager, frag. 525 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Silver and gold are not the only coin; virtue too passes current all over the world.
- Œdipus, frag. 546 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.
- Phœnix, frag. 809 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Ὦ φιλόζωοι βροτοὶ,
οἱ τὴν ἐπιστείχουσαν ἡμέραν ἰδεῖν
οὕτως ἔρως βροτοῖσιν ἐγκεῖται βίου
- O ye life-loving mortals,
  Who ever long to see the coming day,
  Though ye be weighed down with a thousand sorrows!
  So strong the yearning of mankind for life.
- Phœnix, frag. 12 (Harbottle's, 1897)

Τίς δ᾽ οἶδεν εἰ ζῆν τοῦθ᾽ ὁ κέκληται θανεῖν,
τὸ ζῆν δὲ θνῄσκειν ἐστί
- Who knows but life be that which men call death,
  And death what men call life?
- Phrixus, frag. 830 (Bartlett's, 1892)
  Who knows if that be life which we call death,
  And life be dying? (tr. J. A. Symonds, 1879)

Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
- Phrixus, frag. 927 (Bartlett's, 1892)

The gods visit the sins of the fathers upon the children.
- Phrixus, frag. 970 (Bartlett's, 1892)

Πᾶσιν γὰρ εὖ φρονοῦσι συμμαχεῖ τύχη.
- For chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
- Pirithous, adapted (Cassell's, 1907)

"Η τοῖσιν εὐφρονοῦσι συμμαχεῖ τύχη.
- Fortune truly helps those who are of good judgement.
- Pirithous (Cassell's, 1907)

Where two discourse, if the one's anger rise,
The man who lets the contest fall is wise.
- Protesilaus, frag. 656, in Plutarch, Moralia, "De liberis educandis" (tr. Several Hands, 1684)

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.
- Temenidæ, frag. 734 (Bartlett's, 1892)

ἡ γὰρ σιωπὴ τοῖς σοφοῖσ
ἀπόκρισις.
- Silence is an answer in the eyes of the wise.
- Unidentified play, frag. 977 (tr. Christopher Collard and Martin Cropp, L504)
  For silence is true wisdom's best reply. (tr. R. B. Appleton, 1927)

Disputed

Σοφὸς ἦν τις, ὃς τὸ θεῖον εἰσηγήσατο.
- I maintain,
  Some shrewd man first, a man in counsel wise,
  Discovered unto men the fear of Gods,
  Thereby to frighten sinners should they sin
  E'en secretly in deed, or word, or thought.
- Sisyphus fragment, in Sextus Empiricus, Against the Physicists, bk. 1 sec. 54 (tr. R. G. Bury, L311)
  He was a wise man who originated the idea of God. (Cassell's, 1907)

Most cunning doctrine did he introduce,
The truth concealing under speech untrue.
The place he spoke of as the God's abode
Was that whereby he could affright men most,—
The place from which, he knew, both terrors came
And easements unto men of toilsome life—
To wit the vault above, wherein do dwell
The lightnings, he beheld, and awesome claps
Of thunder, and the starry face of heaven,
Fair-spangled by that cunning craftsman Time,—
Whence, too, the meteor's glowing mass doth speed
And liquid rain descends upon the earth.
- Sisyphus fragment (tr. R. G. Bury, L311)

I begin by taking. I shall find scholars later to demonstrate my perfect right.
- Supposedly in The Suppliants [1]
- Also attributed to Frederick the Great of Prussia

Misattributed

Account no man happy till he dies.
- Sophocles, Oedipus Rex l. 1529
- Cf. Herodotus, bk. 1 ch. 32: But refrain from calling him fortunate before he dies; call him lucky. (tr. A. D. Godley, 1920)

Circumstances rule men and not men circumstances.
- Herodotus, Book 7, Ch. 49; Misattributed to Euripides in "The Imperial Four" by Professor Creasy in Bentley's Miscellany Vol. 33 (January 1853), p. 22
- Variant translation: Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.

Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
- Anonymous ancient proverb, wrongly attributed to Euripides. The version here is quoted as a "heathen proverb" in Daniel, a Model for Young Men (1854) by William Anderson Scott. The origin of the misattribution to Euripides is unknown. Several variants are quoted in ancient texts, as follows.
- Variants and derived paraphrases:
  - For cunningly of old
    was the celebrated saying revealed:
    evil sometimes seems good
    to a man whose mind
    a god leads to destruction.
    - Sophocles, Antigone 620-3, a play pre-dating any of Euripides' surviving plays. An ancient commentary explains the passage as a paraphrase of the following, from another, earlier poet.
  - When a god plans harm against a man,
    he first damages the mind of the man he is plotting against.
    - Quoted in the scholia vetera to Sophocles' Antigone 620ff., without attribution. The meter (iambic trimeter) suggests that the source of the quotation is a tragic play.
  - For whenever the anger of divine spirits harms someone,
    it first does this: it steals away his mind
    and good sense, and turns his thought to foolishness,
    so that he should know nothing of his mistakes.
    - Attributed to "some of the old poets" by Lycurgus of Athens in his Oratio In Leocratem [Oration Against Leocrates], section 92. Again, the meter suggests that the source is a tragic play. These lines are misattributed to the much earlier semi-mythical statesman Lycurgus of Sparta in a footnote of recent editions of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and other works.
  - The gods do nothing until they have blinded the minds of the wicked.
    - Variant in ''Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) (1906), compiled by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 433.
  - Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad.
    - Publilius Syrus, Maxim 911
  - The devil when he purports any evil against man, first perverts his mind.
    - As quoted by Athenagoras of Athens in Legatio Pro Christianis.
  - quem Iuppiter vult perdere, dementat prius.
    - "Whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he first sends mad"; neo-Latin version. Similar wording is found in James Duport's Homeri Gnomologia (1660), p. 234. "A maxim of obscure origin which may have been invented in Cambridge about 1640" -- Taylor, The Proverb (1931). Probably a variant of the line "He whom the gods love dies young", derived from Menander's play The Double Deceiver via Plautus (Bacchides 816-7).
  - quem (or quos) Deus perdere vult, dementat prius.
    - Whom God wishes to destroy, he first sends mad.
  - Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
    - This variant is spoken by Prometheus, in The Masque of Pandora (1875) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  - Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
    - As quoted in George Fox Interpreted: The Religion, Revelations, Motives and Mission of George Fox (1881) by Thomas Ellwood Longshore, p. 154
  - Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad.
    - As quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 16th edition (1992)
  - Nor do the gods appear in warrior's armour clad
    To strike them down with sword and spear
    Those whom they would destroy
    They first make mad.
    - Bhartṛhari, 7th c. AD; as quoted in John Brough, Poems from the Sanskrit, (1968), p, 67
  - vināśakāle viparītabuddhiḥ
    - Sanskrit Saying (also in Jatak katha): "When a man is to be destroyed, his intelligence becomes self-destructive."
- Modern derivatives: The proverb's meaning is changed in many English versions from the 20th and 21st centuries that start with the proverb's first half (through "they") and then end with a phrase that replaces "first make mad" or "make mad." Such versions can be found at Internet search engines by using either of the two keyword phrases that are on Page 2 and Page 4 of the webpage "Pick any Wrong Card." The rest of that webpage is frameworks that induce a reader to compose new variations on this proverb.

Quotes about Euripides

Sophocles said that he drew men as they ought to be; Euripides, as they are.
- Aristotle, Poetics, ch. 25 (trans. S. H. Butcher)

I could not bear Euripides at college. I now read my recantation. He has faults undoubtedly. But what a poet! The Medea, the Alcestis, the Troades, the Bacchæ, are alone sufficient to place him in the very first rank.
- Thomas Babington Macaulay to Thomas Flower Ellis (8 February 1835), quoted in George Otto Trevelyan, The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, Volume I (1876), p. 431

The Orestes is one of the very finest plays in the Greek language. Among those of Euripides, I should place it next to the Medea and the Bacchæ. It has some very real faults; but it possesses that strong human interest which neither Æschylus nor Sophocles,—poets in many respects far superior to Euripides,—ever gave to their dramas.
- Thomas Babington Macaulay, quoted in George Otto Trevelyan, The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, Volume I (1876), p. 474

The Bacchæ is a most glorious play. I doubt whether it be not superior to the Medea. It is often very obscure; and I am not sure that I fully understand its general scope. But, as a piece of language, it is hardly equalled in the world. And, whether it was intended to encourage or to discourage fanaticism, the picture of fanatical excitement which it exhibits has never been rivalled.
- Thomas Babington Macaulay, quoted in George Otto Trevelyan, The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, Volume I (1876), pp. 474-475

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Euripides

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Euripides