Sophocles: Quotes about men

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“Henceforth ye may thieve with better knowledge whence lucre should be won, and learn that it is not well to love gain from every source. For thou wilt find that ill-gotten pelf brings more men to ruin than to weal.”

“All men are liable to err.
But when an error is made, that man is no longer
unwise or unblessed who heals the evil
into which he has fallen and does not remain stubborn.”

“Men of ill judgement oft ignore the good
That lies within their hands, till they have lost it.”

“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.”

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

“Men of perverse opinion do not know the excellence of what is in their hands, till some one dash it from them.”