Sophocles Quotes (225 Quotes)

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

The dice of Zeus always fall luckily.

The long unmeasured pulse of time moves everything. There is nothing hidden that it cannot bring to light, nothing once known that may not become unknown.

Every wind is fare when we are flying from misfortune

There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?

If it were possible to cure evils by lamentation and to raise the dead with tears, then gold would be a less valuable thing than weeping.

You should not consider a man's age but his acts.

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

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

Man is not constituted to take pleasure in the same things always.

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

No enemy is worse than bad advice.

The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water.

In a just cause the weak o'ercome the strong.

Every man can see things far off but is blind to what is near.

To a man who is afraid everything rustles.

To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task.

Success is dependent on effort.

Thoughts are mightier than strength of hand.

For death is not the worst, but when one wants to die and is not able even to have that.

It was my care to make my life illustrious not by words more than by deeds.

A short saying oft contains much wisdom.

But this is a true saying among men: the gifts of enemies are no gifts and profitless.

Don't you know that silence supports the accuser's charge?

I see that all of us who live are nothing but images or insubstantial shadow.

Not knowing anything is the sweetest life.

Evil gains work their punishment.

A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.

There are many wonderful things, but none is more wonderful than man

There is no greater evil than anarchy.

There is some pleasure even in words, when they bring forgetfulness of present miseries.

There are some who praise a man free from disease; to me no man who is poor seems free from disease but to be constantly sick.

A human being is only breath and shadow.

It is the task of a good man to help those in misfortune.

In a just cause the weak will beat the strong.

There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.

Not even old age knows how to love death.

It's a terrible thing to speak well and be wrong.

A lie never lives to be old.

For shameful deeds are taught by shameful deeds.

There is a point at which even justice does injury.

It is only great souls that know how much glory there is in being good

When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse.

Who seeks shall find.

Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.

Bear up, my child, bear up; Zeus who oversees and directs all things is still mighty in heaven.

We must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day had been.

You win the victory when you yield to friends.

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

The rewards of virtue alone abide secure.