Theognis
Overview
 
Theognis was a member of the Thirty Tyrants
Thirty Tyrants
The Thirty Tyrants were a pro-Spartan oligarchy installed in Athens after its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. Contemporary Athenians referred to them simply as "the oligarchy" or "the Thirty" ; the expression "Thirty Tyrants" is due to later historians...

 of Athens (Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...

, Hellenica 2.3.2; Lysias 12.6). Lysias
Lysias
Lysias was a logographer in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace in the third century BC.-Life:According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus and the author of the life ascribed to...

 was able to escape from the house of Damnippus, where Theognis was guarding other aristocrats rounded up by the Thirty.
Quotations

Even to a wicked man a divinity gives wealth, Cyrus, but to few men comes the gift of excellence.

Line 149.

Surfeit begets insolence, when prosperity comes to a bad man.

Line 153.

Adopt the character of the twisting octopus, which takes on the appearance of the nearby rock. Now follow in this direction, now turn a different hue.

Line 215.

The best of all things for earthly men is not to be born and not to see the beams of the bright sun; but if born, than as quickly as possible to pass the gates of Hades, and to lie deep buried.

Line 425.

Wine is wont to show the mind of man.

Line 500.

No man takes with him to Hades all his exceeding wealth.

Line 725. Compare: "For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away, his glory shall not descend after him", Psalm xlix, 17.

Bright youth passes swiftly as a thought.

Line 985.

 
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