Sophocles: Trending quotes

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Sophocles: 136 quotes8 likes

“The dice of Zeus fall ever luckily.”

Fragment 809.
Phædra

“No man loves life like him that's growing old.”

Acrisius, fragment 64.

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

Sophocles Trachiniae

Source: Trachiniae, Line 441.

“Time eases all things.”

Source: Oedipus Rex, Line 1515.

“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.”

Trachiniæ, 1.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“A short saying often contains much wisdom.”

Aletes, fragment 99.

“War loves to seek its victims in the young.”

Scyrii, Frag. 507.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.”

Source: Antigone, Line 277; cf. "Don’t shoot the messenger."

“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.”

Source: Antigone, Line 181

“Children are the anchors of a mother's life.”

Fragment 685.
Phædra

“Show me the man who keeps his house in hand,
He's fit for public authority.”

Source: Antigone, Line 660

“"How about your service of Aphrodite, Sophocles—is your natural force still unabated?" And he replied, 'Hush, man, most gladly have I escaped this thing you talk of, as if I had run away from a raging and savage beast of a master."”

Plato, Republic, 1.329c. Translated by Paul Shorey.

“Fear? What has a man to do with fear? Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day.”

Jocasta (Line 977?).
Oedipus Rex
Variant: Nay, what should mortal fear, for whom the decrees of fortune are supreme and who hath clear foresight of nothing? 'Tis best to live at random, as one may.

“Our ship of fate, which recent storms have threatened to destroy, has come safely to harbor at last.”

Source: Antigone, Line 163

“The truth is always the strongest argument.”

Fragment 737.
Phædra

“Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.”

Fragment 842.
Phædra

“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

Source: Trachiniae, Line 943.

“Truly, to tell lies is not honorable;
But when the truth entails tremendous ruin,
To speak dishonorably is pardonable.”

Creusa, fragment 323.

“It is better not to live at all than to live disgraced.”

Peleus, Frag. 445.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“For whoso lives, as I, in many woes,
How can it be but death shall bring him gain?”

ὅστις γὰρ ἐν πολλοῖσιν ὡς ἐγὼ κακοῖς<br>ζῇ, πῶς ὅδ᾽ οὐχὶ κατθανὼν κέρδος φέρει <br class="br">Source: Antigone, Line 463-464; Plumptre translation https://archive.org/stream/b24865898#page/444/mode/2up