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SOPHOCLES QUOTES

Unwanted favours gain no gratitude.

SOPHOCLES, Oedipus at Colonus

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.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

SOPHOCLES, Oedipus Rex

What people believe prevails over the truth.

SOPHOCLES, The Sons of Aleus [fragment]

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

SOPHOCLES, Philoctetes

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.

SOPHOCLES, Ajax

Nothing abides; the starry night, our wealth, our sorrows, pass away.

SOPHOCLES, Women of Trachis

A man is nothing but breath and shadow.

SOPHOCLES, Ajax the Locrian [fragment]

Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

One word
Frees us of all the weight and pain of life:
That word is love.

SOPHOCLES, Oedipus at Colonus

How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there's no help in truth!

SOPHOCLES, Oedipus Rex

Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.

SOPHOCLES, Oedipus Colonus

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

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

There is no greater evil than anarchy.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

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

SOPHOCLES, Ajax the Locrian [fragment]

Reason is God's greatest gift to man.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

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.

SOPHOCLES, Philoctetes

To him who is in fear everything rustles.

SOPHOCLES, Acrisius [fragment]

The soul that has conceived one wickedness can nurse no good thereafter.

SOPHOCLES, Philoctetes

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.

SOPHOCLES, The Sons of Aleus [fragment]

Dirges and canticles are no prescription for ills that need the knife.

SOPHOCLES, Ajax

All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure evil with evil.

SOPHOCLES, The Sons of Aleus [fragment]

Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

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

SOPHOCLES, Ajax

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

SOPHOCLES, Acrisius [fragment]

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

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

A man can get a reputation from very small things.

SOPHOCLES, Inachus [fragment]

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

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

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.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

A mind at peace does not engender wars.

SOPHOCLES, Oedipus Rex

Kindness begets kindness evermore.

SOPHOCLES, Ajax

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.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always.

SOPHOCLES, Philoctetes

No wound is worse than counterfeited love.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

Time eases all things.

SOPHOCLES, Oedipus Rex

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?

SOPHOCLES, Oedipus the King

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.

SOPHOCLES, Antigone

We should not speak of one that prospers well
As happy, till his life have run its course,
And reached its goal. An evil spirit's gift
In shortest time has oft laid low the state
Of one full rich in great prosperity,
When the change comes, and so the Gods appoint.

SOPHOCLES, Fragment

No greater evil can a man endure
Than a bad wife, nor find a greater good
Than one both good and wise; and each man speaks
As judging by the experience of his life.

SOPHOCLES, Fragment

Browse Sophocles Quotes II

Sophocles - a biography.

Sophocles - another biography.

Sophocles and His Tragedies - a biography and analysis of his poetic qualities.

Sophocles Monologues - a collection of monologues from his plays.

Sophocles Poems - a collection of his poetic verse.


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