Sophocles Quotes

There is no more deadly peril than disobedience;
States are devoured by it, homes laid in ruins,
Armies defeated, victory turned to rout.
White simple obedience saves the lives of hundreds
Of honest folk." - Creon ~ Sophocles

When misfortune comes,
The wisest even lose their mother wit ~ Sophocles

We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it. The missing plays of Sophocles will turn up piece by piece, or be written again in another language. Ancient cures for diseases will reveal themselves once more. Mathematical discoveries glimpsed and lost to view will have their time again. ~ Tom Stoppard

A fearful man is always hearing things. ~ Sophocles

For the gods, though slow to see, see well, whenever a man casting aside worship turns folly. ~ Sophocles

Look well at this, and speak no towering word yourself against the gods, nor walk too grandly because your hand is weightier than another's, 130 or your great wealth deeper founded. One short day inclines the balance of all human things to sink or rise again. Know that the gods love men of steady sense and hate the wicked. ~ Sophocles

For time alone shews a man's honesty,
But in one day you may discern his guilt. ~ Sophocles

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

There is an ancient saying, famous among men, that thou shouldst not judge fully of a man's life before he dieth, whether it should be called blest or wretched. ~ Sophocles

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

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

Best to live lightly, unthinkingly. ~ Sophocles

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

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

Closer,
it's all right. Touch the man of grief.
Do. Don't be afraid. My troubles are mine
and I am the only man alive who can sustain them. ~ Sophocles

There is no success without hardship. ~ Sophocles

Wild as you are, all that love you must love you still. ~ Sophocles

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

Great Time makes all things dim. ~ Sophocles

The stream of Time, irresistible, ever moving, carries off and bears away all things that come to birth and plunges them into utter darkness, both deeds of no account and deeds which are mighty and worthy of commemoration; as the playwright [Sophocles] says, it 'brings to light that which was unseen and shrouds from us that which was manifest.' Nevertheless, the science of History is a great bulwark against this stream of Time; in a way it checks this irresistible flood, it holds in a tight grasp whatever it can seize floating on the surface and will not allow it to slip away into the depths of Oblivion.
... I, having realized the effects wrought by Time, desire now by means of my writings to give an account of my father's deeds, which do not deserve to be consigned to Forgetfulness nor to be swept away on the flood of Time into an ocean of Non-Remembrance; I wish to recall everything ... ~ Anna Comnena

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

Men's minds are given to change in hate and friendship. ~ Sophocles

Much wisdom often goes with fewer words. ~ Sophocles

There is a point at which even justice does injury. ~ Sophocles

All men make mistakes,' said the ancient Greek Sophocles. 'But a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only sin is pride. ~ Ken Follett

It is the brave man's part to live with glory, or with glory die. ~ Sophocles

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

Men should pledge themselves to nothing; for reflection makes a liar of their resolution. ~ Sophocles

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

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. ~ Sophocles

A man is nothing but breath and shadow. ~ Sophocles

But when a god sends harm, no man can sidestep it, no matter how strong he may be. ~ Sophocles

Success is dependant on effort. ~ Sophocles

ELECTRA: Oh but my love - now that you have travelled back down all those years to meet my heart, over all this grief of mine, do not oh love -

ORESTES: What are you asking?

ELECTRA: Do not turn your face from me. Don't take yourself away. ~ Sophocles

Alas for the seed of man. ~ Sophocles

Upon that foreign soil he chose
Died he! For ever laid
Low, in the kindly shade,
He left behind no tearless grief,
No measured mourning, dull and brief,
These eyes are wet
With weeping yet,
Nor know I how to find relief."

Antigone ~ Sophocles

The dice of Zeus always fall luckily. ~ Sophocles

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

Never to have been born is best.
Everyone knows that, and a close second,
once you have appeared in this life, is a quick
return, as soon as you can, to where you came from. ~ Sophocles

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

There is no such thing as the old age of the wise. ~ Sophocles

Many the wonders but nothing walks stranger than man. ~ Sophocles

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

There let her pray to the one god she worships: Death
who knows?
may just reprieve her from death. Or she may learn a last, better late than never, what a waste of breath it is to worship Death. ~ Sophocles

Many things are formidable, and none more formidable than man. ~ Sophocles

There's no room for pride, not in a slave,
not with the lord and master standing by. ~ Sophocles

I am the child of Fortune, the giver of good, and I shall not be shamed. She is my mother; my sisters are the Seasons; my rising and my falling match with theirs. Born thus, I ask to be no
other man than that I am. ~ Sophocles

Better to die, and sleep
The never-waking sleep, than linger on
And dare to live when the soul's life is gone. ~ Sophocles

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

And how can we lose this maddening self, lose it entirely? Love? Yes, but as old Cephalus once heard Sophocles say, the least of us know that love is a cruel and terrible master. One loses oneself for the sake of the other, but in doing so becomes enslaved and miserable to the most capricious of all the gods. ~ Donna Tartt

Of happiness the chiefest part
IS a wise heart ~ Sophocles

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

A sight to touch e'en hatred's self with pity. ~ Sophocles

A lie never lives to be old. ~ Sophocles

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

By dread things I am compelled. I know that. I see the trap closing. I know what I am. But while life is in me I will not stop this violence. No. Oh my friends who is there to comfort me? Who understands? Leave me be, let me go, do not soothe me. This is a knot no one can untie. There will be no rest, there is no retrieval. No number exists for griefs like these. ~ Sophocles

Count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last. ~ Sophocles

Not even Ares battles against necessity. ~ Sophocles

Wisdom outweighs any wealth. ~ Sophocles

Opinions have greater power than strength of hands. ~ Sophocles

It is terrible to speak well and be wrong. ~ Sophocles

Who seeks shall find. ~ Sophocles

One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try. ~ Sophocles

I know I please where I must please the most. ~ Sophocles

True, as unwisdom is the worst of ills ~ Sophocles

ORESTES: Just to see the outline of your suffering

ELECTRA: Yet this is only a fraction of it you see. ~ Sophocles

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

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

A lie never grows old. ~ Sophocles

Love, unconquerable, Waster of rich men, keeper Of warm lights and all-night vigil In the soft face of a girl: Sea-wanderer, forest-visitor! Even the pure immortals cannot escape you, And mortal man, in his one day's dusk, Trembles before your glory. ~ Sophocles

Afterthought makes the first resolve a liar. ~ Sophocles

Art thou deaf when friends are banned as foes? ~ Sophocles

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

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

Unwanted favours gain no gratitude. ~ Sophocles

Far-stretching, endless Time
Brings forth all hidden things,
And buries that which once did shine.
The firm resolve falters, the sacred oath is shattered;
And let none say, "It cannot happen here". ~ Sophocles

Of no mortal say, 'That man is happy,' till vexed by no grievous ill he pass Life's goal. ~ Sophocles

The curse of ignorance is that man without being good or evil is nevertheless satisfied with himself ~ Sophocles

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

From suffering that has been/ Decreed no man will ever find escape ~ Sophocles

The difference between the Parthenon and the World Trade Center, between a French wine glass and a German beer mug, between Bach and John Philip Sousa, between Sophocles and Shakespeare, between a bicycle and a horse, though explicable by historical moment, necessity, and destiny, is before all a difference of imagination. ~ Guy Davenport

If you are out of trouble, watch for danger. ~ Sophocles

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

Good advice, if there's any good in suffering. Quickest is best when trouble blocks the way. ~ Sophocles

Time alone can bring the just man to light - the criminal you can spot in just one short day. ~ Sophocles

Kindness it is that brings forth kindness always. ~ Sophocles

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

Those swift to think are not always secure. ~ Sophocles

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

Ah me! think, sister, how our father perished, amid hate and scorn, when sins bared by his own search had moved him to strike both eyes with self-blinding hand; then the mother wife, two names in one, with twisted noose did despite unto her life; and last, our two brothers in one day,-each shedding, hapless one, a kinsman's blood,-wrought out with mutual hands their common doom. And now we in turn-we two left all alone think how we shall perish, more miserably than all the rest, if, in defiance of the law, we brave a king's decree or his powers. Nay, we must remember, first, that we were born women, as who should not strive with men; next, that we are ruled of the stronger, so that we must obey in these things, and in things yet sorer. I, therefore, asking the Spirits Infernal to pardon, seeing that force is put on me herein, will hearken to our rulers. for 'tis witless to be over busy. ~ Sophocles

Helen's era was quite different from what most people think of when they hear the words ancient Greece. The Parthenon, the graceful statues, the works of Sophocles, Euripides, Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato, all came nearly a thousand years after Helen's time, during the classical era. In the Bronze Age, no one yet knew how to make brittle iron flexible enough to use for tools and weapons. Art, especially sculpture of the human form, was stiffer and more stylized. Few people could read or write. Instead of signing important papers, you would use a stone seal to leave an impression on clay tablets. The design on the seal would be as unique as a signature. There was a kind of writing in Bronze Age Greece, but it was mostly used to keep track of financial matters, such as royal tax records. Messages, poems, songs, and stories were not written down but were memorized and passed along by word of mouth. ~ Esther M. Friesner

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

The shimmering night does not stay for mortals, not misfortunes, nor wealth, but in a moment it is gone, and to the turn of another comes joy and loss. ~ Sophocles

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

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

If they are just, they are better than clever. ~ Sophocles

Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way. ~ Sophocles

It is but sorrow to be wise when wisdom profits not. ~ Sophocles

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

Strike at a great man, and you will not miss. ~ Sophocles