Sophocles quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Sophocles

Sophocles Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Sophocles on Wise Famous Quotes.

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

You would rouse to anger a heart of stone.

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

In time you will know this well: For time, and time alone, will show the just man, though scoundrels are discovered in a day.

The powe if fate is something terrible. It cannot be escaped
not with wealth or by war,
not with a tower ir a sea-lashed black ship.

Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.

It is not righteousness to outrage A brave man dead, not even though you hate him.

I will suffer nothing as great as death without glory.

Brave hearts do not back down back off.

Thou lov'st to speak in riddles and dark words.

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

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

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

What a splendid king you'd make of a desert island - you and you alone.

I have been a stranger here in my own land: All my life

Remember there is no success without hard work.

Opportunity has power over all things.

Thou wouldst make a good monarch of a desert

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

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

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

Dreadful is the mysterious power of fate; there is no deliverance from it by wealth or by war, by walled city or dark, seabeaten ships.

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

Tomorrow is tomorrow.
Future cares have future cures,
And we must mind today.

The end excuses any evil.

To know that all is well, even if late will come to know it, is at least some gain.

Zeus detests above all the boasts of a proud tongue.

In matters where I have no cognizance
I hold my tongue.

I have no love for a friend who loves in words alone.

Thoughts are mightier than strength of hand.

Laws can never be enforced unless fear supports them.

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

I cannot love a friend whose love is words.

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

Despair often breeds disease.

To him who is afraid, everything rustles.

No man, my lord, should make a vow, for if
He ever swears he will not do a thing.

No wound is worse than counterfeited love.

If I am young, then you should look not to age but to deeds.

No oath can be too binding for a lover.

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

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

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.

What woe is lacking to my tale of woes?

What greater wound is there than a false friend?

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.

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

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

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

Reverence does not die with mortals, nor does it perish whether they live or die.

Whoever lives among many evils just as I, how can dying not be a source of gain?

Goodbye to the sun that shines for me no longer;

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

Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.

It is better not to live at all than to live disgraced.

Great Time makes all things dim.

And remember that the captor is now the captive; the hunter is in the snare. What was won by stealth will not be kept.

Old age and the passage of time teach all things.

Rather throw away that which is dearest to you, your own life, than turn away a good friend.

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

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

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

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

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

Kindness it is that brings forth kindness always.

What do I care for life when you are dead?

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

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

No yield to the dead! Never stab the fighter when he's down. Where's the glory, killing the dead twice over?

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

One soul is enough, I know, to pay the debt for thousands, if one will go to the gods in all good faith.

Kindness gives birth to kindness.

The rewards of virtue alone abide secure.

When trouble ends even troubles please.

And also because - Oh, my darling, my darling, forgive me; I'm going to cause you quite a lot of pain.

Success, remember is the reward of toil.

Men whose wit has been mother of villainy once have learned from it to be evil in all things.

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

No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat.

A lie never lives to be old.

The pain we inflict upon ourselves hurt most of all.

How dangerous can false reasoning prove!

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

Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.

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

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.

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

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

To live without evil belongs only to the gods.

Gentle time will heal our sorrows.

Those who jump to conclusions may go wrong.

Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.

Alas for the seed of man.

It is always fair sailing, when you escape evil.

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

It is best not to have been born at all: but, if born, as quickly as possible to return whence one came.

Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.

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

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

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.