Euripides

Every line we carry

Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.

1. No one is free. He's a slave to money or to luck.

   Queen Hecuba says no mortal is truly free: each is a slave to money or to fortune, or to the crowd or the law. Freedom is rarer than it looks. Start by noticing what owns you.

   Hecuba 864-865, our translation from the Greek

2. Nothing beats a true friend. Not wealth, not power.

   Orestes says nothing is better than a clear, true friend, not wealth and not royal power, and that a crowd is a poor trade for one noble friend. Count your real friends. That is your actual net worth.

   Orestes 1155-1157, our translation from the Greek

3. Change is sweet in everything.

   Electra says it while helping her sick brother sit up and shift position: change of every kind is sweet. Sometimes the cure for being stuck is simply to move. New spot, new angle, new break.

   Orestes 234, our translation from the Greek

4. The word of truth is simple.

   Polynices says the story of truth is simple by nature and does not need fancy interpretations, while an unjust argument is sick and needs clever medicine. If you need a lot of spin, check what you are spinning.

   Phoenician Women 469, our translation from the Greek

5. Second thoughts are somehow wiser.

   The nurse admits her first reaction was poor and says that among people, second thoughts tend to be wiser. Give your first impulse a minute. The better answer often arrives second.

   Hippolytus 435-436, our translation from the Greek

6. Character stays. Money doesn't.

   Electra tells her mother's lover that he trusted in his wealth, but wealth stays only a short time, while a person's nature is steady. Build on what you are, not what you have. The second can vanish overnight.

   Electra 941, our translation from the Greek

7. Everyone owes a death. No one knows if he'll see tomorrow.

   Heracles, a little drunk, gives a servant some hard sense: all mortals owe a death, and no one knows whether he will live through tomorrow. So enjoy today and do not put off what matters. The debt is certain; the date is not.

   Alcestis 782-784, our translation from the Greek

8. I know the harm I'm about to do. My anger is stronger.

   Medea sees exactly how terrible her revenge will be and does it anyway, because her rage overpowers her reasoning. Knowing better is not the same as doing better. Train your temper before the moment arrives.

   Medea 1078-1079, our translation from the Greek

9. Cleverness is not wisdom.

   The chorus in the Bacchae says that being clever is not the same as being wise. Smart people talk themselves into very stupid things. Wisdom includes knowing your limits.

   Bacchae 395, our translation from the Greek

10. Life is short. Chase too much and you miss what's here.

    The chorus continues: life is brief, and the one who chases great things will not take hold of what is in front of him. Ambition is good until it blinds you to the present. Do not trade the day for the dream.

    Bacchae 397-399, our translation from the Greek

11. Who knows if living is dying, and dying is living?

    Socrates quotes these lines of Euripides in the Gorgias. They flip the usual view of life and death on its head. Maybe the life lived only for appetite is the real death, and the examined life is the real living.

    Polyidus fragment, quoted in Plato, Gorgias 492e, our translation from the Greek

12. Not clever, but a true friend to my friends.

    Orestes describes himself in one line: not wise, but by nature true to his friends. Brains are useful. Loyalty is rarer and more valued when things go wrong.

    Orestes 424, our translation from the Greek