So it is that the gods do not give all men gifts of grace - neither good looks nor intelligence nor eloquence.

• It is entirely seemly for a young man killed in battle to lie mangled by the bronze spear. In his death all things appear fair. But when dogs shame the gray head and gray chin and nakedness of an old man killed, it is the most piteous thing that happens among wretched mortals.
• A small rock holds back a great wave.
• A generation of men is like a generation of leaves the wind scatters some leaves upon the ground, while others the burgeoning wood brings forth - and the season of spring comes on. So of men one generation springs forth and another ceases.
• The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for.
• Evil deeds do not prosper the slow man catches up with the swift.
• There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.
• By their own follies they perished, the fools.
• A multitude of rulers is not a good thing. Let there be one ruler, one king.
• It is not possible to fight beyond your strength, even if you strive.
• Miserable mortals who, like leaves, at one moment flame with life, eating the produce of the land, and at another moment weakly perish.