Sophocles Quotes

#1. All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.

Sophocles

#2. There is no greater evil than anarchy.

Sophocles

#3. It is hope that maintains most of mankind.

Sophocles

#4. There is much that is strange, but nothing that surpasses man in strangeness

Sophocles

#5. Mad are thy subjects all, and even the wisest heart
Straight to folly will fall, at a touch of thy poisoned dart.

Sophocles

#6. It is not right if I am wrong. But if I am young, and right, what does my age matter?

Sophocles

#7. Of course you cannot know a man completely,
his character, his principles, sense of judgment,
not till he's shown his colors, ruling the people,
making laws. Experience, there's the test.

Sophocles

#8. ( ... ) I, for one, prize less
The name of king than deeds of kingly power;
And so would all who learn in wisdom's school.

Sophocles

#9. War loves to seek its victims in the young.

Sophocles

#10. No honest man will argue on every side

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#11. The man the state has put in place must have obedient hearing to his least command when it is right, and even when it's not.

Sophocles

#12. Haemon: No city is property of a single man.
Creon: But custom gives possession to the ruler.
Haemon: You'd rule a desert beautifully alone.

Sophocles

#13. A man's anger can never age and fade away, not until he dies. The dead alone feel no pain.

Sophocles

#14. It is a base thing for a man among the people not to obey those in command. Never in a state can the laws be well administered when fear does not stand firm.

Sophocles

#15. Whenever the deity contrives misfortunes for a man, he first harms their understanding.

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#16. Whose tale more sad than thine, whose lot more dire? O Oedipus, discrowned head, Thy cradle was thy marriage bed.

Sophocles

#17. For the wretched one night is like a thousand; for someone faring well death is just one more night.

Sophocles

#18. Oh child, may you be happier than your father, but in all other respects alike. And then you would not be bad.

Sophocles

#19. Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future.

Sophocles

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

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#21. There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?

Sophocles

#22. Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.

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#23. Think not that your word and yours alone must be right.

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#24. 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.

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#25. Kindness will always attract kindness.

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#26. If I am Sophocles, I am not mad; and if I am mad, I am not Sophocles.

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#27. A man who takes pleasure in speaking continuously fools himself in thinking he is not unpleasant to those around him.

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#28. It's perfect justice: natures like yours are hardest on themselves.

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

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#30. I recommend ... bread, meat, vegetables, and beer.

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#31. To revive sorrow is cruel.

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#32. All is disgust when a man leaves his own nature and does what is unfit.

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#33. Men may know many things by seeing; but no prophet can see before the event, nor what end waits for him.

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#34. No enemy is worse than bad advice.

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

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#36. One thinking it is right to speak all things, whether the word is fit for speech or unutterable.

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#37. The weak can defeat the strong in a case as just as mine.

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#38. Without labor nothing prospers.

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#39. Always desire to learn something useful.

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#40. Ignorance is a tough evil to conquer.

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#41. It is but sorrow to be wise when wisdom profits not.

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#42. ISMENE: How can I live alone, without her?
CREON: Her? Don't even mention her
she no longer exists.
ISMENE: What? You'd kill your own son's bride?
CREON: Absolutely: there are other fields for him to plow.

Sophocles

#43. The tyrant is a child of Pride Who drinks from his sickening cup Recklessness and vanity, Until from his high crest headlong He plummets to the dust of hope.

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#44. The pain we inflict upon ourselves hurt most of all.

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#45. How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be
When there's no help in truth.

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#46. Nobly to live, or else nobly to die,Befits proud birth.

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#47. To err is common
To all men, but the man who having erred
Hugs not his errors, but repents and seeks
The cure, is not a wastrel nor unwise.

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#48. It is always fair sailing, when you escape evil.

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#49. A lie never grows old.

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#50. The pains we inflict upon ourselves hurt most most of all.

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#51. The joy that comes past hope and beyond expectation is like no other pleasure in extent.

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#52. Hide nothing, for time, which sees all and hears all, exposes all.

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#53. The dead alone feel no pain.

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#54. The Greeks could be a crushing bore. I recommend dressing everyone in combat fatigues or S&M gear.

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#55. No one longs to live more than someone growing old.

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#56. And if to some my tale seems foolishness I am content that such could count me fool.

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#57. Silence gives the proper grace to women

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

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#59. Tis better not to be than to vilely live."
"Greedy of gain is every barbarous tribe.

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

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#61. Whom Jupiter would destroy he first drives mad.

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#62. What is to be taught I learn; what is to be discovered I seek; what is to be prayed for I sought from the gods.

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#63. Weep not, everything must have its day.

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#64. It is the dead, not the living, who make the longest demands.

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#65. A man is nothing but breath and shadow.

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#66. One must obey the man whom the city sets up in power in small things and in justice and in its opposite.

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#67. A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.

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#68. 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.

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#69. Sleep's the only medicine that gives ease.

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#70. Hope has often caused the love of gain to ruin men.

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#71. Gentle time will heal our sorrows.

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#72. Those swift to think are not always secure.

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#73. Love is like ice in the hands of children,

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#74. An enemy's gift is ruinous and no gift.

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#75. No wound is worse than counterfeited love.

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#76. 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.

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#77. The good leader repeats the good news, keeps the worst to himself.

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#78. Is anyone in all the world safe from unhappiness?

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#79. Of all vile things current on earth, none is so vile as money.

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#80. The blind man cannot move without a guide

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

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#82. For shameful deeds are taught by shameful deeds.

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#83. A wise man does not chatter with one whose mind is sick.

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#84. Fortune never helps the fainthearted.

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#85. Thy life is safe while any god saves mine.

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#86. Whoever gets up and comes to grips with Love like a boxer is a fool.

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#87. To the person who is afraid, everything rustles.

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

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#89. Sister - if all this is true, what could I do or undo?

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#90. Success is dependent on effort.

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#91. Enough words! The criminals are escaping, we the victims, we stand still.

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#92. Love, you mock us for your sport.

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#93. It is no weakness for the wisest man to learn when he is wrong.

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#94. Heap up great wealth in your house, if you wish, and live as a tyrant, but, if the enjoyment of these things be lacking, I would not buy the rest for the shadow of smoke as against happiness.

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#95. If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom, you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.

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#96. No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat.

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#97. How sweet for those faring badly to forget their misfortunes even for a short time.

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#98. It is best to live however one can be.

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#99. Another husband could be found and with That husband another son. But I have no mother now. I have no father. I cannot bring another brother to the world.

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#100. When an oath is taken ... the mind is more attentive; for it guards against two things, the reproach of friends and offence against the gods.

Sophocles