Interesting Quotes by Sophocles With Free Shareable Pictures
Welcome to our collection of quotes by Sophocles.
Wikipedia Summary for Sophocles
Sophocles (Greek: Σοφοκλῆς, pronounced [so.pʰo.klɛ̂ːs]; c. 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC) is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus; and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus.
For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four.
The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius), thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights.

Share... | See all 16 versions
For death is not the worst, but when one wants to die and is not able even to have that.

Share... | See all 16 versions
The curse of ignorance is that man without being good or evil is nevertheless satisfied with himself.

Share... | See all 16 versions
To me so deep a silence portends some dread event; a clamorous sorrow wastes itself in sound.

Share... | See all 16 versions
How terrible is wisdom, when it brings no profit to the man that's wise.

Share... | See all 16 versions
For whoever knows how to return a kindness he has received must be a friend above all price.

Share... | See all 16 versions
A man who deals in fairness with his own, he can make manifest justice in the state.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Men of ill-judgment oft ignore the good that lies within their hands, til they have lost it.

Share... | See all 16 versions
One must learn by doing the thing. For though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.

Share... | See all 16 versions
The long unmeasured pulse of time moves everything. There is nothing hidden that it cannot bring to light, nothing once known that may not become unknown. Nothing is impossible.

Share... | See all 16 versions
If you believe that stubbornness without reflection Is a virtue, you are thinking crookedly.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Many are the things that man seeing must understand. Not seeing, how shall he know what lies in the hand of time to come?

Share... | See all 16 versions
I pity the poor wretch, though he's my enemy. He's yoked to an evil delusion, but the same fate could be mine. I see clearly: we who live are all phantoms, fleeing shadows.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Opportunity possessing the power over all things, acquires much in its course.

Share... | See all 16 versions
For it is not right that a noble man should take pleasure when the pleasure is not right.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Surely there never was so evil a thing as money, which maketh cities into ruinous heaps, and banisheth men from their houses, and turneth their thoughts from good unto evil.

Share... | See all 16 versions
All men may err; but he that keepeth not his folly, but repenteth, doeth well; but stubbornness cometh to great trouble.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Ah, race of mortal men,
How as a thing of nought
I count ye, though ye live;
For who is there of men
That more of blessing knows,
Than just a little while
To seem to prosper well,
And, having seemed, to fall?

Share... | See all 16 versions
Each one of us must live the life God gives him; it cannot be shirked.

Share... | See all 16 versions
I am the child of Fortune, the giver of good, and I shall not be shamed. She is my mother; my sisters are the Seasons; my rising and my falling match with theirs.

Share... | See all 16 versions
All our mortal lives are set in danger and perplexity: one day to prosper, and the next -- who knows? When all is well, then look for rocks ahead.

Share... | See all 16 versions
For chance is ever raising up the unhappy and casting down the happy, and none can say whether a man's destiny be the one or the other.

Share... | See all 16 versions
For Chance may lift and Chance may dip the scale
Of fortune and misfortune any day.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day.

Share... | See all 16 versions
My son, I pray
that chance will prove kinder to you
than she was to me.

Share... | See all 16 versions
What, shall such traces of my birth appear,
And I not follow them! It may not be.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Give me a life wherever there is an opportunity to live, and better life than was my father's.

Share... | See all 16 versions
I could not turn away from anyone
Like you, a stranger, or refuse to help him.
I know well, being mortal, that my claim
Upon the future is no more than yours.

Share... | See all 16 versions
For the gods, though slow to see, see well, whenever a man casting aside worship turns folly.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Whoe'er imagines prudence all his own, Or deems that he hath powers to speak and judge Such as none other hath, when they are known, They are found shallow.

Share... | See all 16 versions
A cunning fellow is man, inventive beyond all expectation, he reaches sometimes evil and sometimes good.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Whoever has a keen eye for profits, is blind in relation to his craft.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. This sacks cities, this drives men from their homes, this teaches and corrupts the worthiest minds to turn base deeds.

Share... | See all 16 versions
In darkness one may be ashamed of what one does, without the shame of disgrace.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Count no mortal fortunate till he has departed this life free from pain.

Share... | See all 16 versions
And if you think my acts are foolishness the foolishness may be in a fool's eye.

Share... | See all 16 versions
And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Better to die, and sleep
The never-waking sleep, than linger on
And dare to live when the soul's life is gone.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Sleep, thou patron of mankind, Great physician of the mind Who does nor pain nor sorrow know, Sweetest balm of every woe.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Not to be born surpasses all reckoning. The next best thing by far, when one has been born is to go back as swiftly as possible whence one came.

Share... | See all 16 versions
It is not righteousness to outrage.
Longer Version:
It is not righteousness to outrage A brave man dead, not even though you hate him.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Time is the only test of honest men, one day is space enough to know a rogue.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Shame brings no advantage in misfortunes, for silence (of the accused) is the ally of the speaker.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Pardon, and keep silent, for what is shameful for women must be concealed among women.

Share... | See all 16 versions
A trifle is often pregnant with high importance; the prudent man neglects no circumstance.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Deem no man happy until he passes the end of his life without suffering grief.

Share... | See all 16 versions
It can be no dishonor to learn from others when they speak good sense.

Share... | See all 4 versions
Man's highest blessedness, In wisdom chiefly stands; And in the things that touch upon the Gods, 'Tis best in word or deed To shun unholy pride; Great words of boasting bring great punishments, And so to grey-haired age Teach wisdom at the last.

Share... | See all 16 versions
To many men much-wandering hope comes as a boon, but to many others it is the deception of vain desires.

Share... | See all 16 versions
For kindness begets kindness evermore,
But he from whose mind fades the memory
Of benefits, noble is he no more.

Share... | See all 16 versions
I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State.
Longer Version:
I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare -- I have no use for him either.

Share... | See all 16 versions
There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.

Share... | See all 16 versions
They are not wise, then, who stand forth to buffet against Love; for Love rules the gods as he will, and me.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Of course you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgement, not till he's shown his colors, ruling the people, making laws. Experience, there's the test.

Share... | See all 16 versions
May the dead forgive me, I can do no other
But as I am commanded; to do more is madness. -- Ismene.
Longer Version:
May the dead forgive me, I can do no other
But as I am commanded; to do more is madness." -- Ismene, Antigone (The Theban Plays) by Sophocles.

Share... | See all 16 versions
I owe more to the dead, with whom
I will spend a much longer time,
than I will ever owe to the living.

Share... | See all 16 versions
The penalty is death: yet hope of gain Hath lured men to their ruin oftentimes.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Do not believe that you alone can be right.The man who thinks that,The man who maintains that only he has the powerTo reason correctly, the gift to speak, the soul-A man like that, when you know him, turns out empty.

Share... | See all 16 versions
It's terrible when the one who does the judging judges things all wrong.

Share... | See all 16 versions
We have only a little time to please the living. But all eternity to love the dead.

Share... | See all 16 versions
There is no happiness where there is no wisdom.
Longer Version:
There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; No wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big words are always punished, And proud men in old age learn to be wise.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Numberless are the world's wonders, but none More wonderful than man.

Share... | See all 16 versions
The ideal condition would be, I admit, that men should be right by instinct; but since we are all likely to go astray, The reasonable thing is to learn from those who can teach.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Look how men live, always precariously balanced between good and bad fortune.

Share... | See all 16 versions
You cannot know a man's life before the man has died, then only can you call it good or bad.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Let men be wise by instinct if they can, but when this fails be wise by good advice.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Desire looks clear from the eyes of a lovely bride: power as strong as the founded world.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Why should man fear since chance is all in all for him, and he can clearly foreknow nothing? Best to live lightly, as one can, unthinkingly.

Share... | See all 16 versions
The Greeks could be a crushing bore. I recommend dressing everyone in combat fatigues or SandM gear.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Surely, to think your own the only wisdom, and yours the only word, the only will, betrays a shallow spirit, an empty heart.

Share... | See all 16 versions
You are nothing at all. Just a crack where the light slipped through.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Careful! There is war in women too, as you know by experience, I think.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Never since that time has this house got itself clear of rawblood butchery.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Long have we lived in shadows and shuddering: today I think our future is opening out.

Share... | See all 16 versions
And instead my beloved, luck sent you back to me colder than ashes, later than shadow.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Yes I know sorrow. Know it far too well. My life is a tunnel choked by the sweepings of dread.

Share... | See all 16 versions
Oh my love take me there. Let me dwell where you are. I am already nothing, I am already burning. Oh my love, I was once part of you--take me too!

Share... | See all 16 versions
Shame I do feel. And I know there is something all wrong about me--believe me. Sometimes I shock myself.

Share... | See all 16 versions
There is a kind of excellence in me and you--born in us--and it cannot live in shame.
Quotes by Sophocles are featured in:
Friendship Quotes
Gratitude Quotes
Motivational Quotes
Time Quotes
Words Of Wisdom Quotes
Wisdom Quotes
War Quotes
Happy Quotes
Man Quotes