A short saying oft contains much wisdom.
Sophocles
Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away.
Sophocles
Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.
Sophocles
One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.
Sophocles
The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
Sophocles
What you cannot enforce, do not command.
Sophocles
No man loves life like him that's growing old.
Sophocles, Acrisius
To him who is in fear everything rustles.
Sophocles, Acrisius
It is not righteousness to outrage
A brave man dead, not even though you hate him.
Sophocles, Ajax
Men of ill judgment oft ignore the good
That lies within their hands, till they have lost it.
Sophocles, Ajax
Of all human ills, greatest is fortune's wayward tyranny.
Sophocles, Ajax
For God hates utterly
The bray of bragging tongues.
Sophocles, Antigone
Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.
Sophocles, Antigone
How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong!
Sophocles, Antigone
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.
Sophocles, Antigone
Money: There's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.
Sophocles, Antigone
Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.
Sophocles, Antigone
Numberless are the world's wonders, but none
More wonderful than man.
Sophocles, Antigone
Reason is God's crowning gift to man.
Sophocles, Antigone
Show me the man who keeps his house in hand,
He's fit for public authority.
Sophocles, Antigone
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, Antigone
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.
Sophocles, Antigone
Wisdom outweighs any wealth.
Sophocles, Antigone
Truly, to tell lies is not honorable;
but when the truth entails tremendous ruin,
To speak dishonorably is pardonable.
Sophocles, Creusa
Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish.
Sophocles, Electra
Death is not the worst; rather, in vain
To wish for death, and not to compass it.
Sophocles, Electra
The end excuses any evil.
Sophocles, Electra (c.409 BC)
It made our hair stand up in panic fear.
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
One word
Frees us of all the weight and pain of life:
That word is love.
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
Stranger in a strange country.
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
The good befriend themselves.
Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be
When there's no help in truth!
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
Time eases all things.
Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers would one day suffer reverse.
Sophocles, Trachiniae
Knowledge must come through action; you can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.
Sophocles, Trachiniae
Rash indeed is he who reckons on the morrow, or haply on days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past.
Sophocles, Trachiniae
