Sophocles, in "Œdipus Colonus" (1225), has the following abbreviation of the same: –
"(
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(Natum non esse sortes vincit alias omnes : proximo, autem est, ubi quis in lucent editus fuerit, eodem redire, unde venit, quam otierime.)
Euripides says: –
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(Omnis hominum vitæ est plena, dolore, Nec datur laborum remissio.) HIPPOL, 189.
And Homer already said: –
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(Non enim quidquam alicubi est calamitosius homine Omnium, quotquot super terram spirantque et moventur.) Il. xvii. 446.
Even Pliny says: "Quapropter hoc primum quisque in remediis animi sai habeat, ex omnibus bonis, quæ homini natura tribuit, nullum melius esse tempestiva morte" (Hist. Nat. 28, 2).
Shakspeare puts the words in the mouth of the old king Henry IV.: –
"O heaven! that one might read the book of fate,
And see the revolution of the times,
... how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,
The happiest youth, – viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue, –
Would shut the book, and sit him down and die."
Finally, Byron: –
"Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen,
Count o'er thy days from anguish free,
And know, whatever thou hast been,
'Tis something better not to be."
