Sophocles Quotes

Think again, Electra. Don't say anymore. Don't you see what you're doing? You make your own pain. Why keep wounding yourself? With so much evil stored up in that cold dark soul of yours you breed enemies everywhere you touch.

The truth is what I cherish and that's my strength

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

A city which belongs to just one man is no true city

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

Show me a man who longs to live a day beyond his time who turns his back on a decent length of life, I'll show the world a man who clings to folly.

I ask this one thing: let me go mad in my own way.

No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.

Heaven ne'er helps the men who will not act.

Hide nothing, for time, which sees all and hears all, exposes all.

Always desire to learn something useful.

Not to be born at all
Is best, far best that can befall,
Next best, when born, with least delay
To trace the backward way.
For when youth passes with its giddy train,
Troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils,
Pain, pain forever pain;
And none escapes life's coils.
Envy, sedition, strife,
Carnage and war, make up the tale of life.

CHORUS:
You that live in my ancestral Thebes, behold this Oedipus,- him who knew the famous riddles and was a man most masterful; not a citizen who did not look with envy on his lot- see him now and see the breakers of misfortune swallow him!
Look upon that last day always. Count no mortal happy till he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain.

How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong!

There is no happiness where there is no wisdom...