Theognis of Megara

"τίκτει τοι κόρος ὕβριν, ὅταν κακῷ ὄλβος ἕπηται."

Theognis of Megara

"φορτηγοὶ δ᾿ ἄρχουσι, κακοὶ δ᾿ ἀγαθῶν καθύπερθεν."

Theognis of Megara

"αἶψα γὰρ ὥστε νόημα παρέρχεται ἀγλαὸς ἥβη."

Theognis of Megara

"οὐδὲν Κύρν᾿ ἀγαθῆς γλυκερώτατόν ἐστι γυναικός."

Theognis of Megara

"Theognis appears as a finely formed nobleman who has fallen on bad times, with the passions of a nobleman such as his time loved, full of fatal hatred toward the upward striving masses, tossed about by a sad fate that wore him down and made him milder in many respects. He is a characteristic image of that old, ingenious somewhat spoiled and no longer firmly rooted blood nobility, placed at the boundary of an old and a new era, a distorted Janus-head, since what is past seems so beautiful and enviable, that which is coming — something that basically has an equal entitlement — seems disgusting and repulsive; a typical head for all those noble figures who represent the aristocracy prior to a popular revolution and who struggle for the existence of the class of nobles as for their individual existence."

Theognis of Megara