Sophocles Quotes

What greater wound is there than a false friend?

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

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 man
can turn his back on folly, misfortune too,
if he tries to make amends, however low he's fallen,
and stops his bullnecked ways. Stubbornness
brands you for stupidity - pride is a crime.

"Hail the sun! the brightest of all that ever
Dawned on the City of Seven Gates, City of Thebes!
Hail the golden dawn over Dirce's river
Rising to speed the flight of the white invaders
Homeward in full retreat!" - Chorus

Nothing great enters the life of mortals without a curse.

Shall not I
Learn place and wisdom? Have I not learned this,
Only so much to hate my enemy,
As though he might again become my friend,
And so much good to wish to do my friend,
As knowing he may yet become my foe?

أيتها المرأة إن الصمت هو زينة النساء.

You're in love with impossibility

How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be
When there’s no help in truth.

They are not wise, then, who stand forth to buffet against Love; for Love rules the gods as he will, and me.

A State for one man is no State at all.

There is an ancient saying, famous among men, that thou shouldst not judge fully of a man's life before he dieth, whether it should be called blest or wretched.

A man's anger can never age and fade away, not until he dies. The dead alone feel no pain.

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

Though he has watched a decent age pass by,
A man will sometimes still desire the world.
I swear I see no wisdom in that man.
The endless hours pile up a drift of pain
More unrelieved each day: and as for pleasure,
When he is sunken in excessive age,
You will not see his pleasure anywhere.
The last attendant is the same for all,
Old men and young alike, as in its season
Man's heritage of underworld appears:
There being no epithalamion,
No music and no dance. Death is the finish.

Not to be born beats all philosophy.
The second best is to have seen the light
And then to go back quickly whence we came.
The feathery follies of his youth once over,
What trouble is beyond the range of man?
What heavy burden will he not endure?
Jealousy, faction, quarreling, and battle — The bloodiness of war, the grief of war.
And in the end he comes to strengthless age,
Abhorred by all men, without company,
Unfriended in that uttermost twilight
Where he must live with every bitter thing.