Sophocles Quotes
One word
Frees us of all the weight and pain of life:
That word is love.
Nothing so evil as money ever grew to be current among men. This lays cities low, this drives men from their homes, this trains and warps honest souls till they set themselves to works of shame; this still teaches folk to practise villainies, and to know every godless deed. But all the men who wrought this thing for hire have made it sure that, soon or late, they shall pay the price.
Tomorrow is tomorrow.
Future cares have future cures,
And we must mind today.
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. Nothing is impossible.
All our mortal lives are set in danger and perplexity: one day to prosper, and the next.. who knows? When all is well, then look for rocks ahead.
Love, unconquerable,
Waster of rich men, keeper
Of warm lights and all-night vigil
In the soft face of a girl:
Sea-wanderer, forest-visitor!
Even the pure immortals cannot escape you,
And mortal man, in his one day's dusk,
Trembles before your glory.
Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.
Our ship of fate, which recent storms have threatened to destroy, has come safely to harbor at last.
Nothing abides; the starry night, our wealth, our sorrows, pass away.
Let men be wise by instinct if they can, but when this fails be wise by good advice.
There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.
Whoever lives among many evils just as I, how can dying not be a source of gain?
The soul that has conceived one wickedness can nurse no good thereafter.
Who seeks shall find.
Man's highest blessedness,
In wisdom chiefly stands;
And in the things that touch upon the Gods,
'Tis best in word or deed
To shun unholy pride;
Great words of boasting bring great punishments,
And so to grey-haired age
Teach wisdom at the last.
Without labor nothing prospers.
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.
One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.
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.
Which would you choose if you could:
pleasure for yourself despite your friends
or a share in their grief?
Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish.
Variant:
Death is not the worst; rather, in vain, to wish for death, and not to compass it.
Variant: Death is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to die, and not be able to.
Wise thinkers prevail everywhere.
Silence has many beauties.
Wealth makes an ugly person beautiful to look on and an incoherent speech eloquent; and wealth alone can enjoy pleasure even in sickness and can conceal its miseries.
Stranger in a strange country.
No other touchstone can test the heart of a man, the temper of his mind and spirit, till he be tried in the practice of authority and rule.
Knowledge must come through action; you can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.
A man growing old becomes a child again.
All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure evil with evil.
Look and you will find it - what is unsought will go undetected.