Sophocles Quotes

143 Sourced Quotes

It is a good thing
To escape from death, but it is not great pleasure
To bring death to a friend.

Sophocles
Truly, to tell lies is not honorable;
But when the truth entails tremendous ruin,
To speak dishonorably is pardonable.

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
It's terrible when the one who does the judging judges things all wrong.

Sophocles
The ideal condition
Would be, I admit, that men should be right by instinct;
But since we are all likely to go astray,
The reasonable thing is to learn from those who can teach.

Sophocles
It can be no dishonor to learn from others when they speak good sense.

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

Sophocles
Nay, if these measures give any ground of confidence, we think that thy design is not amiss.

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

Sophocles
And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly.

Sophocles
It is best to live anyhow, as one may; do not be afraid of marriage with your mother! Many have lain with their mothers in dreams too. It is he to whom such things are nothing who puts up with life best.

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

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

Sophocles
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
More men come to doom through dirty profits than are kept by them.

Sophocles
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
The sleep of a sick man has keen eyes. It is a sleep unsleeping.

Sophocles
Yet I pity the poor wretch, though he's my enemy. He's yoked to an evil delusion, but the same fate could be mine. I see clearly: we who live are all phantoms, fleeing shadows.

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

Sophocles
No more shall ye behold such sights of woe, deeds I have suffered and myself have wrought; henceforward quenched in darkness shall ye see those ye should ne'er have seen; now blind to those whom, when I saw, I vainly yearned to know.

Sophocles
Those griefs smart most which are seen to be of our own choice.

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

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

Sophocles
Do not believe that you alone can be right.The man who thinks that,The man who maintains that only he has the powerTo reason correctly, the gift to speak, the soul-A man like that, when you know him, turns out empty.

Sophocles
For to cast away a virtuous friend, I call as bad as to cast away one's own life, which one loves best.

Sophocles
How terrible is wisdom, when it brings no profit to the man that's wise

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

Sophocles