Sophocles Quotes

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

May the dead forgive me, I can do no otherBut as I am commanded; to do more is madness." - Ismene, Antigone (The Theban Plays) by Sophocles

Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.

Your edict, King, was strong,But all your strength is weakness itself againstThe immortal unrecorded laws of God.They are not merely now: they were, and shall be,Operative for ever, beyond man utterly.I knew I must die, even without your decree:I am only mortal. And if I must dieNow, before it is my time to die,Surely this is no hardship: can anyoneLiving, as I live, with evil all about me,Think Death less than a friend?

One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.

In a just cause the weak will beat the strong!

The only crime is pride.

TEIRESIAS:You have your eyes but see not where you arein sin, nor where you live, nor whom you live with.Do you know who your parents are? Unknowingyou are enemy to kith and kinin death, beneath the earth, and in this life.

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

For Time calls only once, and that determines all.

May the dead forgive me, I can do no otherBut as I am commanded; to do more is madness." - Ismene

All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.

JOCASTA:So clear in this case were the oracles,so clear and false. Give them no heed, I say;what God discovers need of, easilyhe shows to us himself.

Thou wouldst make a good monarch of a desert

A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind.

I could not turn away from anyone Like you, a stranger, or refuse to help him. I know well, being mortal, that my claimUpon the future is no more than yours.

There's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.

Best to live lightly unthinkingly.

Those swift to think are not always secure.

No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.

Kindness gives birth to kindness.

The powe if fate is something terrible. It cannot be escaped--not with wealth or by war, not with a tower ir a sea-lashed black ship.

TEIRESIAS: Alas, how terrible is wisdom whenit brings no profit to the man that's wise!This I knew well, but had forgotten it,else I would not have come here.

I didn't say yes. I can say no to anything I say vile, and I don't have to count the cost. But because you said yes, all that you can do, for all your crown and your trappings, and your guards—all that your can do is to have me killed.