"Madness takes its toll ..."

Χορός:
Σοφίᾳ γὰρ ἔκ του
κλεινὸν ἔπος πέφανται,
τὸ κακὸν δοκεῖν ποτ' ἐσθλὸν
τῷδ' ἔμμεν, ὅτῳ φρένας
θεὸς ἄγει πρὸς ἄταν˙
πράσσει δ' ὀλιγοστὸν χρόνον ἐκτὸς ἄτας.

Σοφοκλέους
Αντιγόνη
620-625


Chorus:
For with wisdom did someone once reveal the maxim, now famous, that evil at one time or another seems good, to him whose mind a god leads to ruin. But for the briefest moment such a man fares free of destruction.

Sophocles
Antigone
trans. Sir Richard Jebb (1891)

_______________________________

... thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
of thought is death ...

William Blake
The Fly
from Songs of Experience