Sophocles Quotes

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.

Wisdom is the most important part of happiness.

Alas! How sad when reasoners reason wrong.

We have only a little time to please the living. But all eternity to love the dead.

It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.

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

Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.

No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.

Reason is God's crowning gift to man, and you are rightTo warn me against losing mine. I cannot say—I hope that I shall never want to say!— that youHave reasoned badly. Yet there are other menWho can reason, too; and their opinions might be helpful.You are not in a position to know everythingThat people say or do, or what they feel:Your temper terrifies them—everyoneWill tell you only what you like to hear.

I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State.

Whom Jupiter would destroy he first drives mad.

In a just cause the weak will beat the strong!

Is anyone in all the world safe from unhappiness?

I am determined that never, if I can help it,Shall evil triumph over good." - Creon

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

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

A sight to touch e’en hatred’s self with pity.

For if any man thinks that he is alone is wise--that in speech, or in mind, he hath no peer--such a soul, when laid open, is ever found empty.

Heaven ne'er helps the man who will not help himself.

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

Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.

Thy life is safe while any god saves mine.

Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish.

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

Thou wouldst make a good monarch of a desert

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.

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

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

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

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

For Time calls only once, and that determines all.

But if I am young, thou shouldest look to my merits, not to my years.

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

One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.

Take these things to heart, my son, I warn you.All men make mistakes, it is only human.But once the wrong is done, a mancan turn his back on folly, misfortune too,if he tries to make amends, however low he's fallen,and stops his bullnecked ways. Stubbornnessbrands you for stupidity - pride is a crime.

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.

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.

All is disgust when one leaves his own nature and does things that misfit it.

There was the girl, screaming like an angry bird,When it finds its nest left empt and little ones gone." - Sentry

Prefiero, señor, obrar bien y fracasar, antes que triunfar con malas artes.Palabras de Neoptólemo a Odiseo, en la tragedia griega Filoctetes.

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.

The soul that has conceived one wickedness can nurse no good thereafter.

Money! Money's the curse of man, none greater.That's what wrecks cities, banishes men from homes,Tempts and deludes the most well-meaning soul,Pointing out the way to infamy and shame." - Creon

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

I could not turn away from anyone Like you, a stranger, or refuse to help him. I know well, being mortal, that my claimUpon the future is no more than yours.

I didn't say yes. I can say no to anything I say vile, and I don't have to count the cost. But because you said yes, all that you can do, for all your crown and your trappings, and your guards—all that your can do is to have me killed.

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.

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

The tyrant is a child of PrideWho drinks from his sickening cup Recklessness and vanity,Until from his high crest headlongHe plummets to the dust of hope.

All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure evil with evil.

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.

I have seen or heard of no other man whom destiny treated with such enmity as it did Philoktetes

Why should a man fear since chance is all in all for him and he can clearly fore-know nothing? Best to live lightly as one can unthinking.

Time is a kindly god.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

Your edict, King, was strong,But all your strength is weakness itself againstThe immortal unrecorded laws of God.They are not merely now: they were, and shall be,Operative for ever, beyond man utterly.I knew I must die, even without your decree:I am only mortal. And if I must dieNow, before it is my time to die,Surely this is no hardship: can anyoneLiving, as I live, with evil all about me,Think Death less than a friend?

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

Without labor nothing prospers.

Success is dependent on effort.

When he endures nothing but endless miseries-- What pleasure is there in living the day after day, Edging slowly back and forth toward death?Anyone who warms their heart with the glow Of flickering hope is worth nothing at all. The noble man should either live with honor or die with honor. That's all there is to be said.