Hesiod

Every line we carry

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

1. Before excellence the gods have set sweat.

   Hesiod tells his lazy brother that badness is easy to find and lives next door, but the immortals put sweat in front of excellence. There is no route to being good at something that skips the work. The sweat is not an obstacle on the way; it is the way.

   Works and Days 289, our translation from the Greek

2. Long and steep at first. Reach the top and it gets easy.

   The path to excellence, Hesiod says, is long and steep and rough at the start, but when you reach the top it becomes easy, hard as it was. Every skill feels this way: the first months are the worst. Keep climbing until the hard thing turns into your normal.

   Works and Days 290-292, our translation from the Greek

3. Work is no shame. Idleness is.

   A mirror line from a farmer-poet: no work is a disgrace, but not working is. Status snobbery about jobs gets it backwards. The person doing honest work of any kind stands taller than the one doing nothing.

   Works and Days 311, our translation from the Greek

4. Fools don't know how much more half is than the whole.

   Hesiod calls the greedy judges fools who do not know how much more the half is than the whole. An honest half, earned fairly and enjoyed in peace, beats a whole taken with trouble attached. Enough is a number you can reach; more is not.

   Works and Days 40, our translation from the Greek

5. Add little to little, often, and it becomes big.

   Hesiod's advice on saving works for everything: put a little on a little and do it often, and soon it is a lot. Fitness, savings, skill and trust all grow this way. Small and frequent beats big and rare.

   Works and Days 361-362, our translation from the Greek

6. Don't put it off till tomorrow. The man who delays wrestles with ruin.

   Hesiod warns against pushing work to tomorrow and the day after: the idle man and the postponer do not fill their barns, and the man who keeps delaying is always wrestling with disaster. Procrastination is not rest. It is a slow fight you keep losing.

   Works and Days 410-413, our translation from the Greek

7. Practice makes the work grow.

   Half a line in the middle of farm advice: care and practice make the work prosper. The Greek word melete means steady attention. Show up, pay attention, repeat, and the work grows under your hands.

   Works and Days 412, our translation from the Greek

8. Plot harm for another and you plot it for yourself.

   Hesiod says the man who builds evil for another builds it for himself, and a bad plan is worst for the one who made it. Schemes have a way of coming home. The cleanest protection is not to start them.

   Works and Days 265-266, our translation from the Greek

9. Even a fool learns once he suffers.

   Justice wins in the end, Hesiod says, and the fool learns it by getting hurt. Pain is a teacher everyone attends eventually. The smarter move is to learn from other people's bruises before you collect your own.

   Works and Days 218, our translation from the Greek

10. Keep to measure. Timing is best in all things.

    After warning against overloading a wagon until the axle snaps, Hesiod gives the rule: observe measure, and the right moment is best in everything. Know the load you can carry and the moment to carry it.

    Works and Days 694, our translation from the Greek

11. A sparing tongue is a man's best treasure.

    Hesiod says the best treasure people have is a tongue that is careful with words, and that speech is most welcome when it keeps to measure. Say less, and what you say gains weight.

    Works and Days 719-720, our translation from the Greek

12. Best: think for yourself. Good: listen to good advice. Worst: neither.

    Hesiod ranks people in three tiers: the best work things out for themselves, the good take sound advice, and the useless do neither. Aim for the first, accept the second without shame, and never settle for the third.

    Works and Days 293-297, our translation from the Greek

13. Save from the middle of the jar. Thrift at the bottom is too late.

    Drink freely when the wine jar is full or nearly empty, Hesiod says, but spare it in the middle, because saving at the bottom is a poor kind of saving. Discipline is easiest to practice while you still have plenty.

    Works and Days 368-369, our translation from the Greek

14. Potter against potter. That kind of strife is good.

    Hesiod describes two kinds of strife: one breeds war, the other makes a neighbor work harder because the man next door is getting rich. Potter rivals potter, carpenter rivals carpenter. Healthy rivalry is fuel; let the people ahead of you push you.

    Works and Days 23-25, our translation from the Greek