Interesting Quotes by Sophocles
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To live with glory, or with glory die,

This is the brave man's part.

You won't listen to reason at all, will you?
No. My mind is my own.

Do I not live? Badly, I know, but I live.

For kindness begets kindness evermore,

But he from whose mind fades the memory

Of benefits, noble is he no more.

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.

There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.

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

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.

I say that this crime is holy.

May the dead forgive me, I can do no other
But as I am commanded; to do more is madness. -- Ismene.

I owe more to the dead, with whom
I will spend a much longer time,
than I will ever owe to the living.

Alas! How sad when reasoners reason wrong.

The penalty is death: yet hope of gain Hath lured men to their ruin oftentimes.

What woe is lacking to my tale of woes?

It is my nature to join in love, not hate.

Leave me to my own absurdity.

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.

It's terrible when the one who does the judging judges things all wrong.

We have only a little time to please the living. But all eternity to love the dead.

Money: There's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.

There is no happiness where there is no wisdom.

Numberless are the world's wonders, but none More wonderful than man.

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.

Look how men live, always precariously balanced between good and bad fortune.

You cannot know a man's life before the man has died, then only can you call it good or bad.

Let men be wise by instinct if they can, but when this fails be wise by good advice.

Brave hearts do not back down back off.

Desire looks clear from the eyes of a lovely bride: power as strong as the founded world.

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.

Thoughts are mightier than strength of hand.

Surely, to think your own the only wisdom, and yours the only word, the only will, betrays a shallow spirit, an empty heart.

Friendship is a tension. It makes delicate demands.

You are nothing at all. Just a crack where the light slipped through.

Not long now: the blazing dream of my head is crawling out.

Careful! There is war in women too, as you know by experience, I think.

Never since that time has this house got itself clear of rawblood butchery.

But death was a wind too strong for that.

Long have we lived in shadows and shuddering: today I think our future is opening out.

And instead my beloved, luck sent you back to me colder than ashes, later than shadow.

Yes I know sorrow. Know it far too well. My life is a tunnel choked by the sweepings of dread.

All my love gone for nothing. Days of my love, years of my love.

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!

I will not live by rules like those.

Shame I do feel. And I know there is something all wrong about me--believe me. Sometimes I shock myself.

You're dreaming, girl, lost in a moving dream.

There is a kind of excellence in me and you--born in us--and it cannot live in shame.

Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.

You should not consider a man's age but his acts.

The kind of man who always thinks that he is right, that his opinions, his pronouncements, are the final word, when once exposed shows nothing there. But a wise man has much to learn without a loss of dignity.

What greater wound is there than a false friend?

Success, remember is the reward of toil.

Time, which sees all things, has found you out.

The golden eye of justice sees, and requites the unjust man.

Heaven ne'er helps the men who will not act.

I am determined that never, if I can help it,
Shall evil triumph over good. -- Creon.

No pity for these things, there is no pity but mine, oh father, for the pity of your butchering rawblood death.

Now is no time to delay. This is the edge of action.

Last night was a night of bad dreams and ambiguous visions.

I am at the end. I exist no more.

I live in a place of tears.

I ask this one thing: let me go mad in my own way.

This is Electra. Brilliant no more.

Yes it will be a grace if I die. To exist is pain. Life is no desire of mine anymore.

A word does not frighten the man who, in acting feels no fear.

Not from Hades' black and universal lake can you lift him. Not by groaning, not by prayers. Yet you run yourself out in a grief with no cure, no time-limit, no measure. It is a knot no one can untie. Why are you so in love with things unbearable?

For even bold natures flee, whenever they see Hades close to life.

Opinions have greater power than strength of hands.

Now let the weeping cease; Let no one mourn again. These things are in the hands of God.

You would rouse to anger a heart of stone.

The man from whom the joys of life have departed is living no more, but should be counted with the dead.

Though a man be wise it is no shame for him to live and learn.

A man though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind.

A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers should one day suffer reverse.

I was born to join in love, not hate -- that is my nature.

To never have been born may be the greatest boon of all.

Each say following another, either hastening or putting off our death -- what pleasure does it bring? I count that man worthless whois cheered by empty hopes. No, a noble man must either live or die well.

Obedience to authority saves many skins.

For to cast away a virtuous friend, I call as bad as to cast away one's own life, which one loves best.

I know that you are deathly sick; and yet, sick as you are, not one is as sick as I.

By God, I'll have more booty in a moment.

You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness-blind!

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

When you can prove me wrong, then call me blind.

Who feels no ills, should, therefore, fear them; and when fortune smiles, be doubly cautious, lest destruction come remorseless on him, and he fall unpitied.

Show me the man who keeps his house in hand, He's fit for public authority.

Not to be born surpasses thought and speech. The second best is to have seen the light and then go back quickly whence we came.

Here he comes like a stealing shadow, like a footprint of death into the rooms, stalking the past with freshcut blood in his hands.

Woman, to women silence is the best ornament.

For if any man thinks that he is alone is wise -- that in speech, or in mind, he hath no peer -- such a soul, when laid open, is ever found empty.

Go then if you must, but remember, no matter how foolish your deeds, those who love you will love you still.

It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it.

What people believe prevails over the truth.

In season, all is good.

We must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day had been.

Wealth makes an ugly person beautiful to look on and an incoherent speech eloquent; and wealth alone can enjoy pleasure even in sickness and can conceal its miseries.

Death is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to die, and not be able to.

To speak much is one thing; to speak to the point another!