Theognis

The elegiac poet Theognis is one of the few ancient Greek poets whose work has survived substantially intact. This corpus includes more than 600 elegiac couplets. The theme of Theognis' poetry is boy-love; some begin by calling on the object of affection with the Greek for "O Boy." Many are addressed to a youth named Cyrnus.

Theognis was the first Greek poet to express concern over the fate of his work.

We don't know for certain when Theognis lived, although at least the bulk of his life was spent in the 6th century B.C. He may have witnessed events of 480 B.C. He may have been born around 540 B.C. Alternately, his floruit is dated to 544 B.C., which wouldn't be possible had he been born four years later.

The Cambridge History of Classical Literature Volume I Part 1 - Early Greek Poetry, edited by P.E Easterling and B.M.W. Knox. 1989.

"Is it any wonder I can’t please all my townsmen? Zeus himself doesn’t please everyone when he sends rain or when he withholds it."
Theognis. 24-30 p.233

"To an evil man whose place he is about to dispose, Zeus first gives Pride."
Theognis. 151-152 p.247.

"Not even a lion has always meat for supper; for all his might he must sometimes go without."
Theognis. 293-294 p.263.

"The bad are not bad from the womb, but have learnt base ways from the bad because they thought what they said was true."
Theognis. 305-308 p.265.

"Many bad men are rich and many good men poor; yet we will not exchange our virtue for wealth seeing that virtue endures while possessions belong now to this man and then to that."
Theognis. 315-318 p.267. Greek Elegy and Iambus. Loeb. Vol. I.
Translated by Giles Laurén in The Stoic's Bible.