Ignorant men
Don’t know what good they hold in their hands until
They’ve flung it away.
¶ Ajax, l. 964 [Tecmessa]
trans. John Moore (1959).
Alt trans. by George Young (1888): “Men of perverse opinion do not know / The excellence of what is in their hands, / Till some one dash it from them.”
Alt trans.: "Men of ill judgement oft ignore the good / That lies within their hands, till they have lost it."
Alt trans.: "For those who are base in judgement do not know the good they hold in their hands until they cast it off."
