Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Hesiod (Greek Poet)

The Greek poet and rhapsode Hēsiod (fl. c.700 BCE,) also Hēsiodos in Greek and Hēsiodus in Latin, was the first didactic poet in Europe and the first author of continental Greece whose works are extant. Known as the “father of Greek didactic poetry,” his influence on later literature was indispensable and comprehensive.

Hēsiod’s details are shrouded in myth and the obscurity of time; the only facts originate from his writing. The timing of his life is still disputed—while some scholars suppose he was a contemporary of Homer, others assume that Hēsiod lived a century after the Homeric epics were composed, but probably before 700 BCE.

Born in Ascra, a village in the territory of Thespiae, now in Boeotia, Central Greece, Hēsiod spent his early years working his family’s farm. According to his writing, Muses appeared to him while he was tending sheep on the slopes of Mount Helicon and gave him a poet’s staff and endowed him with a poet’s voice.

Many titles of several poems have come down to us under the name of Hēsiod. Many later epics by other poets were soon debatably attributed to him. Hēsiod’s two complete works, believed to be genuine, have continued to exist. Hēsiod is best known for the epics Erga kai Hēmerai (“Works and Days” or Opera et dies,) which describes agrarian life simple rustic pleasures, gives a realistic picture of a primitive peasant commune, and offers homely advice for the farmer. Hēsiod also wrote Theogonia (“Theogony,”) provides the best-known Greek creation myth—the origin of the universe and the genealogy of the gods.

Classical Greek historian Andrew Robert Burn wrote the authoritative The World of Hēsiod (1966.) American poet Richmond Lattimore’s The Works and Days, Theogony, and The Shield of Herakles (1959) is a comprehensive modern translation.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Hesiod

It is best to do things systematically, since we are only humans, and disorder is our worst enemy.
Hesiod
Topics: Order, Disorder

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 steer is the way to it.
Hesiod
Topics: Excellence

The half is greater than the whole.
Hesiod
Topics: Appreciation

Acquisition means life to miserable mortals.
Hesiod
Topics: Consumerism

If you should put even a little on a little and should do this often, soon this would become big.
Hesiod
Topics: Patience

It will not always be summer: build barns.
Hesiod
Topics: Summer

The fool knows after he’s suffered.
Hesiod
Topics: Experience

The man who procrastinates struggles with ruin.
Hesiod
Topics: Procrastination

If you add a little to a little and do this often, soon the little will become great.
Hesiod
Topics: Things, Little Things

Never make a companion equal to a brother.
Hesiod
Topics: Brothers, One liners

Before the gates of excellence the high gods have placed sweat; long is the road thereto and rough and steep at first; but when the heights are reached, then there is ease, though grievously hard in the winning.
Hesiod
Topics: Excellence

Fools! not to know how health and temperance bless the rustic swain, while luxury destroys her pampered train.
Hesiod

A bad neighbor is a misfortune, as much as a good one is a great blessing.
Hesiod
Topics: Neighbors

The man who does evil to another does evil to himself, and the evil counsel is most evil for him who counsels it.
Hesiod
Topics: Evil

Try to take for a mate a person of your own neighborhood.
Hesiod
Topics: Marriage

Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace.
Hesiod
Topics: Work, Idleness, One liners

Money is life to us wretched mortals.
Hesiod
Topics: Money

Potter is jealous of potter, and craftsman of craftsman; and the poor have a grudge against the poor, and the poet against the poet.
Hesiod
Topics: Jealousy

I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.
Hesiod
Topics: Discipline, Future, Just for Fun, Youth

We know how to speak many falsehoods that resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.
Hesiod
Topics: Truth

If you only keep adding little by little, it will soon become a big heap.
Hesiod
Topics: One Step at a Time

There is also an evil name or report, light, indeed, and easy to raise, but difficult to carry, and still more difficult to get rid of.
Hesiod

The seeds of our punishment are sown at the same time we commit the sin.
Hesiod
Topics: Punishment

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