Sophocles Quotes

143 Sourced Quotes

If to some my tale seems foolishness I am content that such could count me fool.

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

Sophocles
The stubbornest of wills Are soonest bended, as the hardest iron, O'er-heated in the fire to brittleness,Flies soonest into fragments, shivered through.

Sophocles
Men of perverse opinion do not know the excellence of what is in their hands, till someone dash it from them.

Sophocles
IOCLASTA: Nay, what should mortal[s] fear, for whom the degree of fortune are supreme, and who hath clear foresight of nothing? 'Tis best to live at random, as one may.

Sophocles
You cannot know a man's life before the man has died, then only can you call it good or bad.

Sophocles
Even the bold will fly when they see Death drawing in close enough to end their life.

Sophocles
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.

Sophocles
If you are out of trouble, watch for danger. And when you live well, then consider the most your life, lest ruin take it unawares.

Sophocles
And if my present actions strike you as foolish, let's just say I've been accused of folly by a fool.

Sophocles
You see how when rivers are swollen in winter those trees that yield to the flood retain their branches, but those that offer resistance perish, trunk and all.

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

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

Sophocles
A man who deals in fairness with his own, he can make manifest justice in the state.

Sophocles
Man's highest blessedness, In wisdom chiefly stands; And in the things that touch upon the Gods, 'Tis best in word or deed To shun unholy pride; Great words of boasting bring great punishments, And so to grey-haired age Teach wisdom at the last.

Sophocles
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.

Sophocles
What men have seen they know; But what shall come hereafter No man before the event can see, Nor what end waits for him.

Sophocles
When people fall in deep distress, their native sense departs.

Sophocles
The strongest iron, hardened in the fire, most often ends in scraps and shatterings.

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

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

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
Look how men live, always precariously balanced between good and bad fortune.

Sophocles