Sophocles

One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.

A man growing old becomes a child again.

How sweet for those faring badly to forget their misfortunes, even for a short time.

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

All a man's affairs become diseased when he wishes to cure evils by evils.

Despair often breeds disease.

Always desire to learn something useful.

Evil gains work their punishment.

For those whose wit becomes the mother of villainy, those it educates to be evil in all things.

Enemies' gifts are no gifts and do no good.

Children are the anchors of a mother's life.

No enemy is worse than bad advice.

Gratitude to gratitude always gives birth.

Men of ill judgment ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it.

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

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

Evil counsel travels fast.

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

Not to be born is past all prizing best.

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

Success is dependent on effort.

All is disgust when a man leaves his own nature and does what is unfit.

Without labor nothing prospers.

It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.

Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes.

Men may know many things by seeing, but no prophet can see before the event nor what end waits for him.

Foolishness is indeed the sister of wickedness.

For the wretched one night is like a thousand, for someone faring well death is just one more night.

How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there's no help in the truth.

Whoever thinks that he alone has speech or possesses speech or mind above others when unfolded such men are seen to be empty.

Silence is an ornament for women.

Much speech is one thing well-timed speech is another.

To live without evil belongs only to the gods.

There is a point at which even justice does injury.

A human being is only breath and shadow.

Not knowing anything is the sweetest life.

Look and you will find it - what is unsought will go undetected.

A day lays low and lifts up again all human things.

Best to live lightly unthinkingly.

Wise thinkers prevail everywhere.

I see the state of all of us who live nothing more than phantoms or a weightless shadow.

If you have done terrible things you must endure terrible things, for thus the sacred light of injustice shines bright.

A fearful man is always hearing things.

If we are to keep our democracy there must be one commandment: "Thou shalt not ration justice."

The dice of Zeus always fall luckily.

When trouble ends even troubles please.

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.

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

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

There is no greater evil than anarchy.

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

What house bloated with luxury ever became prosperous without a woman's excellence?

If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.

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

War never takes a wicked man by chance the good man always.

Who seeks shall find.

Old age and the passage of time teach all things.

It's impossible to speak what it is not noble to do.

Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.

It is the merit of a general to impart good news and to conceal the truth.

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

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

A word does not frighten the man who in acting feels no fear.

For the dead there are no more toils.

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

Even a poor man can receive honors.

Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.

Much wisdom often goes with fewest words.

The gods plant reason in mankind of all good gifts the highest.

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

Profit is sweet even if it comes from deception.

Reverence does not die with mortals nor does it perish whether they live or die.

There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.

It is a base thing for a man among the people not to obey those in command. Never in a state can the laws be well administered when fear does not stand firm.

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

If one begins all deeds well it is likely that they will end well too.

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

Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. This sacks cities this drives men from their homes this teaches and corrupts the worthiest minds to turn base deeds.

A soul that is kind and intends justice discovers more than any sophist.

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

In a just cause the weak will beat the strong.

Not all things are to be discovered, many are better concealed.

Better not to exist than live basely.

Whoever understands how to do a kindness when he fares well would be a friend better than any possession.

Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.

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

There is a time when even justice brings harm.

Fortune raises up and fortune brings low both the man who fares well and the one who fares badly, and there is no prophet of the future for mortal men.

A short saying often contains much wisdom.

There is no greater evil for men than the constraint of fortune.

God's dice always have a lucky roll.

There is an ancient saying among men that you cannot thoroughly understand the life of mortals before the man has died then only can you call it good or bad.

Isn't it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?

No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat.

Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness.

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

A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.

No one longs to live more than someone growing old.

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.

Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future.

There is no success without hardship.

For shameful deeds are taught by shameful deeds.

No lie ever reaches old age.

Not even Ares battles against necessity.

Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away.

The rewards of virtue alone abide secure.

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

Whoever lives among many evils just as I how can dying not be a source of gain?

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

No speech can stain what is noble by nature.

The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water.

To give birth is a fearsome thing, there is no hating the child one has borne even when injured by it.

One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.

Reason is God's crowning gift to man.

Whoever thinks his friend more important than his country I rate him nowhere.

He who throws away a friend is as bad as he who throws away his life.

Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure.

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.

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

Not even old age knows how to love death.

Those whose life is long still strive for gain and for all mortals all things take second place to money.

Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.

Men should pledge themselves to nothing, for reflection makes a liar of their resolution.

Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.

Time alone reveals the just man, but you might discern a bad man in a single day.

A wise man does not chatter with one whose mind is sick.

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

I would rather miss the mark acting well than win the day acting basely.

If my body is enslaved still my mind is free.

A lie never lives to be old.

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

No one who errs unwillingly is evil.

To him who is in fear everything rustles.

No man loves the bearer of bad tidings.

Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.

Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing.

But whoever gives birth to useless children, what would you say of him, except that he has bred sorrows for himself and furnishes laughter for his enemies.

You win the victory when you yield to friends.

It is best to live however one can be.