“Justice turns the scale For those to whom through pain At last comes wisdom's gain.”

— Aeschylus, Agamemnon, lines 250-251 (tr. E. H. Plumptre)

About Aeschylus

525 BC – 456 BC

Ancient Greek tragedian, author of "Prometheus Bound" and the "Oresteia".

“Time waxing old can many a lesson teach.”

“The walls of Athens are impregnable, Their firmest bulwarks her heroic sons.”

“But when a man speeds toward his own ruin, a god gives him help.”

“The superior man thinks of virtue; the small man thinks of comfort.”

“A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.”

“It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know.”

“Knowledge by suffering entereth, And life is perfected by death.”

“Whatever you may suffer, speak the truth. Be worthy of the entire confidence of your associates.”

“I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth — and truth rewarded me.”