Frasi di Solone

“Non esiste cretino che sia silenzioso ad una festa.”

“I poeti dicono molte falsità.”

“Nessuno può essere definito felice prima che sia morto.”

“Impara a ubbidire e imparerai a comandare.”

“Invecchio imparando ogni giorno molte cose.”

“Col desiderio delle cosce e della dolce bocca.”

“Conosci te stesso.”

“Molti uomini malvagi sono ricchi, e quelli buoni poveri, ma noi non scambieremo con loro la nostra superiorità per la ricchezza.”

“Non definire un uomo felice finché non muore: tutt'al più, egli è fortunato.”

“Ciascuno ha buona stima di sé prima di subire qualcosa; poi subito si affligge, ma fino a quel momento a bocca aperta ci nutriamo di vane speranze.”

“Congettura le cose che non appaiono da quelle che appaiono.”

“Se avete patito angherie per la vostra viltà non date in qualche cosa agli dei la colpa di queste.”

“Le leggi sono come ragnatele, che rimangono salde quando vi urta qualcosa di molle e leggero, mentre una cosa più grossa le sfonda e sfugge.”

“Source: Citato in I lirici greci, Bignami, p. 111.”

“Call no man happy until he is dead.”

“No more good must be attempted than the nation can bear”

“In giving advice seek to help, not to please, your friend.”

“Seek to learn constantly while you live; do not wait in the faith that old age by itself will bring wisdom.”

“Rule, after you have first learned to submit to rule.”

“An unlucky rich man is more capable of satisfying his desires and of riding out disaster when it strikes, but a lucky man is better off than him…He is the one who deserves to be described as happy. But until he is dead, you had better refrain from calling him happy, and just call him fortunate.”

“That city in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers.”

“No fool can be silent at a feast.”

“If through your vices you afflicted are,
Lay not the blame of your distress on God;
You made your rulers mighty, gave them guards,
So now you groan 'neath slavery's heavy rod.”

“Watch well each separate citizen,
Lest having in his heart of hearts
A secret spear, one still may come
Saluting you with cheerful face,
And utter with a double tongue
The feigned good wishes of his wary mind.”

“As the Deity has given us Greeks all other blessings in moderation, so our moderation gives us a kind of wisdom which is timid, in all likelihood, and fit for common people, not one which is kingly and splendid. This wisdom, such as it is, observing that human life is ever subject to all sorts of vicissitudes, forbids us to be puffed up by the good things we have, or to admire a man's felicity while there is still time for it to change.”

“I grow old ever learning many things.”

“Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them; and I shall so frame my laws that it will be evident to the Athenians that it will be for their interest to observe them.”

“Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath.”

“Wealth I desire to have; but wrongfully to get it, I do not wish.
Justice, even if slow, is sure.”

“Do not counsel what is most pleasant, but what is best.”