Daily Inspiration Quote by Aeschylus

Prosperity, Aeschylus suggests, isn’t a destination but a fever: the more you have, the hotter you run. Coming from the oldest of the big three Greek tragedians, the line doesn’t read like a bumper-sticker complaint about greed. It’s a stage-direction for catastrophe. In Aeschylean drama, abundance is rarely stable; it’s the precondition that tempts the powerful into overreach and invites the gods, the city, or fate to correct the imbalance.

The intent is diagnostic. “Mortals” is the key insult: a reminder that humans are defined by limits, yet they behave as if limits don’t apply. Prosperity becomes the most seductive kind of self-deception because it masquerades as security. Wealth, victory, status, the shine of being “favored” - these don’t just feel good; they feel like proof that the universe agrees with you. Tragedy thrives on that misunderstanding. You get used to the harvest, then you start demanding it.

Subtextually, the line carries a political warning suited to Athens’ emerging imperial confidence: when a society grows rich, it also grows thirsty. Desire stops being about meeting needs and becomes a habit of expansion, a logic that can justify cruelty, arrogance, and risky gambles. Aeschylus doesn’t moralize in the abstract; he frames prosperity as a psychological trap that makes moral failure feel rational.

The cruel elegance is that the charge is universal and impersonal. No villain required. “Never have enough” is simply what mortals do, right up until the bill arrives.