Sophocles quotes:

A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.

Not knowing anything is the sweetest life.

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

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

Much wisdom often goes with fewest words.

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

If it were possible to cure evils by lamentation and to raise the dead with tears, then gold would be a less valuable thing than weeping.

One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.

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

Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.

Isn't it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?

Gratitude to gratitude always gives birth.

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.

Those whose life is long still strive for gain, and for all mortals all things take second place to money.

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

In a just cause the weak will beat the strong.

Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure.

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

Bear up, my child, bear up; Zeus who oversees and directs all things is still mighty in heaven.

When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse.

But whoever gives birth to useless children, what would you say of him except that he has bred sorrows for himself, and furnishes laughter for his enemies.

The gods plant reason in mankind, of all good gifts the highest.

A day lays low and lifts up again all human things.

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

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

To give birth is a fearsome thing; there is no hating the child one has borne even when injured by it.

No lie ever reaches old age.

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

A soul that is kind and intends justice discovers more than any sophist.

Do not grieve yourself too much for those you hate, nor yet forget them utterly.

There is no greater evil than anarchy.

No one who errs unwillingly is evil.

Every man can see things far off but is blind to what is near.

If you have done terrible things, you must endure terrible things; for thus the sacred light of injustice shines bright.

I see that all of us who live are nothing but images or insubstantial shadow.

I see the state of all of us who live, nothing more than phantoms or a weightless shadow.

No enemy is worse than bad advice.

There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.

All a man's affairs become diseased when he wishes to cure evils by evils.

Success is dependent on effort.

If my body is enslaved, still my mind is free.

Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.

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

Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.

He who throws away a friend is as bad as he who throws away his life.

A man growing old becomes a child again.

Always desire to learn something useful.

For those whose wit becomes the mother of villainy, those it educates to be evil in all things.

The only crime is pride.

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

TEIRESIAS: Alas, how terrible is wisdom whenit brings no profit to the man that's wise!This I knew well, but had forgotten it,else I would not have come here.

TEIRESIAS:You have your eyes but see not where you arein sin, nor where you live, nor whom you live with.Do you know who your parents are? Unknowingyou are enemy to kith and kinin death, beneath the earth, and in this life.

JOCASTA:So clear in this case were the oracles,so clear and false. Give them no heed, I say;what God discovers need of, easilyhe shows to us himself.

OEDIPUS:O, O, O, they will all come,all come out clearly! Light of the sun, let melook upon you no more after today!I who first saw the light bred of a matchaccursed, and accursed in my livingwith them I lived with, cursed in my killing.

Children are the anchors of a mother's life.

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

What people believe prevails over the truth.

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

For God hates utterly the bray of bragging tongues.

Brave hearts do not back down back off.

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

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

There is no greater evil for men than the constraint of fortune.

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.

Alas, how quickly the gratitude owed to the dead flows off, how quick to be proved a deceiver.

Profit is sweet, even if it comes from deception.

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

Always desire to learn something useful

Despair often breeds disease.

God's dice always have a lucky roll.

The dice of Zeus always fall luckily.

To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task.

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

Kindness begets kindness evermore.

For kindness begets kindness evermore,But he from whose mind fades the memoryOf benefits, noble is he no more.

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.

What greater wound is there than a false friend?

A fearful man is always hearing things.

There is some pleasure even in words, when they bring forgetfulness of present miseries.

Fate has terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war. No fort will keep it out, no ships outrun it.

Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.

Evil gains work their punishment.

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

It is the task of a good man to help those in misfortune.

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.

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

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

Dark, dark! The horror of darkness, like a shroud, wraps me and bears me on through mist and cloud.

There is no success without hardship.

You would rouse to anger a heart of stone.

To throw awayan honest friend is, as it were, to throw your life away.

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

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

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

Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.

Silence is an ornament for women.

You must remember that no one lives a life free from pain and suffering.

Old age and the passage of time teach all things.

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.

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

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.

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.

Silence gives the proper grace to women

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

Cling not to one mood, And deemed not thou art right, all others wrong.For whoso thinks that wisdom dwells with him,That he alone can speak or think alright,Such oracles are empty breath when tried. The wisest man will let himself be swayedBy other's wisdom and relax in time.

Long, long ago; her thought was of that childBy him begot, the son by whom the sireWas murdered and the mother left to breedWith her own seed, a monstrous progeny.Then she bewailed the marriage bed whereonPoor wretch, she had conceived a double brood,Husband by husband, children by her child.

For Time calls only once, and that determines all.

It is not in words that I should wish my life to be distinguished, but rather in things done.

Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes.

Look and you will find it - what is unsought will go undetected.

There is no greater evil than men's failure to consult and to consider.

For the dead there are no more toils.

When I have tried and failed, I shall have failed.

Shall not ILearn place and wisdom? Have I not learned this,Only so much to hate my enemy,As though he might again become my friend,And so much good to wish to do my friend,As knowing he may yet become my foe?

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

Those swift to think are not always secure.

The truth is what I cherish and that's my strength

Alas, how terrible is wisdomwhen it brings no profit to the man that's wise!This I knew well, but had forgotten it,else I would not have come here.

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

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