bogus Aeschylus quote?

[Garson O'Toole]

Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> YBQ contains no quotations from Aeschylus. But never mind that. One of the
> quotations from Aeschylus that it doesn't contain may be a quotation from
> somebody else.
>
> In his 1995 memoir, _In Retrospect_, Robert MacNamara seems to have helped
> popularize the saying, which he attributes to Aeschylus, that "The reward of
> suffering is experience."
>
> Nifty. Unfortunately, neither I nor Wikiquotes can find a citation of this
> saying earlier than roughly the 1980s.

I cannot find an early quotation and attribution. Here are some partial matches:

The Journal of Hellenic Studies in 1884 says this:

We may now approach the Oresteia of Aeschylus and see how he adapts
his trichotomy to the three moments of a deep moral doctrine which is
the Grundgedanke of this trilogy. …
(3) the object of suffering is experience, to teach.

http://books.google.com/books?id=6UYUAAAAYAAJ&q=%22is+experience%22#v=snippet&

The words appear as part of a literary and moral analysis, and the
author does not claim to be quoting Aeschylus.


In 1907 A Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words by W.
Gurney Benham contains:

[[Four words of Greek]] –Suffering brings experience. — (Greek,
Aeschylus. Agamemnon, 185.)

http://books.google.com/books?id=0gQ9AAAAYAAJ&q=%22suffering+brings%22#v=snippet&


In 1922 Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations contains:

Suffering brings experience.
Aeschylus—Agamemnon.

http://books.google.com/books?id=vusHEymIuvwC&q=%22Suffering+brings%22#v=snippet&


In 1953 (according to the often incorrect Google Books metadata)
Volume 31 of the Rosicrucian Digest was released by the Supreme
Council of the Rosicrucian Order. The volume contains the following
text:

An ancient mystical proverb says: "Every cross has its crown." This
means that the reward of suffering is: experience, illumination
(Brahma-vidya), purification, the abandonment of sin, reincarnation,
that is, the working off of Karma — in other words, liberation.

http://books.google.com/books?id=6ArRAAAAMAAJ&q=Brahma#search_anchor

Conclusion, Robert McNamara is surreptitiously injecting Rosicrucian
doctrine into the public sphere by hiding its provenance with a
semi-plausible misattribution to a prestigious Greek playwright.
(Given decades of experience with electronic communication I know that
I must say: The previous statement was a joke.)

(continuing the message of J. Lighter)
> What earlier authorities credit Aeschylus with saying (in _Prometheus
> Bound_) was, essentially, that suffering brings wisdom.
> There is a huge difference in my mind between the two versions of Aeschylus'
> words.  If suffering brings wisdom, then it has some value. If its "reward"
> is *mere* "experience," however, why bother? You could be as dumb as
> before, just more wretched.
>
> Another question is whether Aeschylus (not a native speaker of Modern
> English) was actually able to verbalize the difference between "wisdom" and
> "experience" or whether, in accordance with Whorf-Sapir, that
> distinction would have been less than obvious. My Ancient Greek is too, er,
> "rusty" for me to comment.
>
> If  the Greek vocabulary didn't distinguish, which word in context seems
> more likely to reflect his intention? (My SWAG is "wisdom": Aeschylus was a
> pessimist but not, AFAIK, a nihilist.)
>
> Moreover, several websites credit "The reward of suffering is experience" to
> the precocious Harry Truman, said to have uttered it in "1884," as soon,
> presumably, as he popped from the womb. God knows what his mom thought.
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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>

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