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Quotation from Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod
“Badness can be got easily and in shoals: the road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows: long and steep is the path that leads to her, and it is rough at the first”
Theogony and Works and Days, Works and Days, ll. 287-290, trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White
Hesiod gives his foolish brother Perses good sense about the hard road to excellence.
Citation: "Badness can be got easily and in shoals: the road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows: long and steep is the path that leads to her, and it is rough at the first" — Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days, Works and Days, ll. 287-290, trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White. (id hesiod-theogony-and-works-and-days-q3)
Portrait: Bust of an unknown Greek poet, long identified as Hesiod (the 'Pseudo-Seneca'), Roman copy, British Museum, Unknown Roman sculptor, Public domain.
