Sophocles

Quotes

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
O generations of men, how I count you as equal with those who live not at all!
One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.
Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away.
Who feels no ills, should, therefore, fear them; and when fortune smiles, be doubly cautious, lest destruction come remorseless on him, and he fall unpitied.
To revive sorrow is cruel.
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.
Of all human ills, greatest is fortune's wayward tyranny.
Men of ill judgment oft ignore the good
That lies within their hands, till they have lost it.
It is not righteousness to outrage
A brave man dead, not even though you hate him.
How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be
When there's no help in truth!
The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.
Time eases all things.
For God hates utterly
The bray of bragging tongues.
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; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare - I have no use for him either.
Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.
Money: There's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.
How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong!
Numberless are the world's wonders, but none
More wonderful than man.
Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.
Show me the man who keeps his house in hand,
He's fit for public authority.
Reason is God's crowning gift to man.
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.
There is no happiness where there is no wisdom;
No wisdom but in submission to the gods.
Big words are always punished,
And proud men in old age learn to be wise.
Death is not the worst; rather, in vain
To wish for death, and not to compass it.
A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers would one day suffer reverse.
Knowledge must come through action; you can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.
Rash indeed is he who reckons on the morrow, or haply on days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past.
Stranger in a strange country.
The good befriend themselves.
One word
Frees us of all the weight and pain of life:
That word is love.
It made our hair stand up in panic fear.
Truly, to tell lies is not honorable;
but when the truth entails tremendous ruin,
To speak dishonorably is pardonable.
To him who is in fear everything rustles.
No man loves life like him that's growing old.
A short saying oft contains much wisdom.
The end excuses any evil.
Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.
How terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it.
Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish.
What you cannot enforce, do not command.
Wisdom outweighs any wealth.