Interesting Quotes by Sophocles

For death is not the worst, but when one wants to die and is not able even to have that.

Gentle time will heal our sorrows.

It is always fair sailing, when you escape evil.

If they are just, they are better than clever.

The curse of ignorance is that man without being good or evil is nevertheless satisfied with himself.

To me so deep a silence portends some dread event; a clamorous sorrow wastes itself in sound.

How terrible is wisdom, when it brings no profit to the man that's wise.

It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.

For whoever knows how to return a kindness he has received must be a friend above all price.

A man who deals in fairness with his own, he can make manifest justice in the state.

Men of ill-judgment oft ignore the good that lies within their hands, til they have lost it.

Nothing prospers without effort.

Those who jump to conclusions may go wrong.

How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong.

Many the wonders but nothing walks stranger than man.

Every wind is fare when we are flying from misfortune.

One must learn by doing the thing. For though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.

Sons are the anchors of a mother's life.

The rewards of virtue alone abide secure.

False words do not bring forth fruit.

I would prefer even to fail with honor than to win by cheating.

The wise form right judgment of the present from what is past.

Time eases all things.

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.

If you believe that stubbornness without reflection Is a virtue, you are thinking crookedly.

Silence has many beauties.

To women silence is the best ornament.

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

A man can get a reputation from very small things.

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.

Piety dies not with man; live they or die they, it perishes not.

Opportunity possessing the power over all things, acquires much in its course.

For it is not right that a noble man should take pleasure when the pleasure is not right.

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.

All men may err; but he that keepeth not his folly, but repenteth, doeth well; but stubbornness cometh to great trouble.

It is better not to exist than to live in misery.

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?

Each one of us must live the life God gives him; it cannot be shirked.

The gifts of enemies are no gifts, and are fraught with mischief.

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.

Envy crawls toward the wealthy.

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.

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.

For Chance may lift and Chance may dip the scale
Of fortune and misfortune any day.

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

My son, I pray
that chance will prove kinder to you
than she was to me.

What, shall such traces of my birth appear,

And I not follow them! It may not be.

A fool cannot be an actor, though an actor may act a fool's part.

Give me a life wherever there is an opportunity to live, and better life than was my father's.

For God hates utterly the bray of bragging tongues.

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.

No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.

For the gods, though slow to see, see well, whenever a man casting aside worship turns folly.

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.

What you cannot enforce, do not command!

A cunning fellow is man, inventive beyond all expectation, he reaches sometimes evil and sometimes good.

Whoever has a keen eye for profits, is blind in relation to his craft.

Astronomy? Impossible to understand and madness to investigate.

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.

In darkness one may be ashamed of what one does, without the shame of disgrace.

When people fall in deep distress, their native sense departs.

Count no mortal fortunate till he has departed this life free from pain.

To those who err in judgment, not in will, anger is gentle.

And if you think my acts are foolishness the foolishness may be in a fool's eye.

And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly.

Men's minds are given to change in hate and friendship.

No man loves life like him that's growing old.

Better to die, and sleep

The never-waking sleep, than linger on

And dare to live when the soul's life is gone.

Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.

Even from the first it is meek to seek the impossible.

Love, you mock us for your sport.

I write a woman's oaths in water.

Let a man nobly live or nobly die.

Sleep, thou patron of mankind, Great physician of the mind Who does nor pain nor sorrow know, Sweetest balm of every woe.

More men come to doom through dirty profits than are kept by them.

A prudent man should neglect no circumstances.

I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality and then in retrospect.

How dangerous can false reasoning prove!

Success is the reward for toil.

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.

Afterthought makes the first resolve a liar.

To err from the right path is common to mankind.

It is not righteousness to outrage.

Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all.

Time is the only test of honest men, one day is space enough to know a rogue.

Shame brings no advantage in misfortunes, for silence (of the accused) is the ally of the speaker.

Pardon, and keep silent, for what is shameful for women must be concealed among women.

Truth is always straightforward.

Alas! how terrible it is to know,
Where no good comes of knowing!

For no one loves the bearer of bad tidings.

A trifle is often pregnant with high importance; the prudent man neglects no circumstance.

I am free! for I have in me the strength of truth.

A city which belongs to just one man is no true city.

Unwanted favours gain no gratitude.

It becomes one, while exempt from woes, to look to the dangers.

A mind at peace does not engender wars.

Deem no man happy until he passes the end of his life without suffering grief.

It can be no dishonor to learn from others when they speak good sense.

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.

To many men much-wandering hope comes as a boon, but to many others it is the deception of vain desires.