"In times like these, when wishes soar but power fails, / I contemplate the steady comfort found in gold: / gold you can spend on guests; gold you can pay the doctor / when you get sick. But a small crumb of gold will buy / our daily bread, and when a man has eaten that, / you cannot really tell the rich and poor apart." —Farmer, Electra, lines 426-431, page 27

"I call to you again and say Aegisthus dies! / And if Orestes in his struggle falls to death / I too am dead, let them no longer say I live, / for I will stab my belly with a two-edged sword." —Electra, Electra, lines 689-692, page 40

"This game of death is bitter, and sweet." —Orestes, Electra, line 987, page 51

"A wife should give way to her husband in all things / if her mind is sound; if she refuses to see this truth...