Sayings of Solon

Solon (c. 630-560 BC) was the great lawgiver of early Athens, and many of his reforms, though not always initially successful, were the foundation for later Athenian democratic institutions. 

While attuned to the practicalities of politics and economics, Solon also understood how the welfare of any community is fundamentally moral, and so he always asked not only if it happened to be expedient, but also if it was right. 

Solon stood against the scheming of Pisistratus, going so far as to rush into the assembly fully armed to warn against the dangers of autocracy: 

Men of Athens, I am wiser than some of you and more courageous than others: wiser than those who fail to understand the plot of Pisistratus, more courageous than those who, though they see through it, keep silence through fear. 

Many thought him insane, and so he was to die in exile. Like any insightful man, he saw the bigger picture: 

A little while, and the event will show 

To all the world if I be mad or no. 

We still have some of his other wise utterances: 

He used to say that those who had influence with tyrants were like the pebbles employed in calculations; for, as each of the pebbles represented now a large and now a small number, so the tyrants would treat each one of those about them at one time as great and famous, at another as of no account. 

Speech is the mirror of action. 

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

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. 

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.

Consider your honor, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath. 

Do not be rash to make friends and, when once they are made, do not drop them. 

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

Wealth I desire to have; but wrongfully to get it, I do not wish.

Justice, even if slow, is sure.

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. 

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

I grow old ever learning many things.

For often evil men are rich, and good men poor; 

But we will not exchange with them 

Our virtue for their wealth since one abides always, 

While riches change their owners every day. 

Nothing too much. 

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. 

Be led by reason. Shun evil company. Honor the gods. Reverence parents. 

Having been asked what city was best to live in: "That city in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers." 

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.