Quotes from Sophocles

To the man who is afraid everything rustles.

What foolishness it is to desire more life, after one has tasted A bit of it and seen the world; for each day, after each endless day, Piles up ever more misery into a mound. As for pleasures: once we Have passed youth they vanish away, never again to be seen. Death is the end of all. Never to be born is the best thing. To have seen the daylight And be swept instantly back into dark oblivion comes second.

I was born to share love, not hate", said Antigone. "Go then, and share your love for the dead", responds Creon.

Think again, Electra. Don't say anymore. Don't you see what you're doing? You make your own pain. Why keep wounding yourself? With so much evil stored up in that cold dark soul of yours you breed enemies everywhere you touch.

Not to be born surpasses thought and speech. The second best is to have seen the light and then go back quickly whence we came

They are dying, the old oracles sent to Laius, now our masters strike them off the rolls. Nowhere Apollo's golden glory now -- the gods, the gods go down.

Never to have been born is best. Everyone knows that, and a close second, once you have appeared in this life, is a quick return, as soon as you can, to where you came from. In our light-headed youth we carry blithe ideas, not knowing what blows await, what hardships are bearing down, closer and closer. Murder, hatred, strife, resentment, and envy are lurking, and then, behind them, bitter old age, powerless, friendless, with evils our only neighbors.

Once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme.

We long to have again the vanished past, in spite of all its pain.

Enough words! The criminals are escaping, we the victims, we stand still.

And if you find I've lied, from this day on call the prophet blind.

Those swift to think are not always secure.

By dread things I am compelled. I know that. I see the trap closing. I know what I am. But while life is in me I will not stop this violence. No. Oh my friends who is there to comfort me? Who understands? Leave me be, let me go, do not soothe me. This is a knot no one can untie. There will be no rest, there is no retrieval. No number exists for griefs like these.

No yield to the dead! Never stab the fighter when he's down. Where's the glory, killing the dead twice over?

Shame I do feel. And I know there is something all wrong about me—believe me. Sometimes I shock myself.

Unnatural silence signifies no good.

A man's anger can never age and fade away, not until he dies. The dead alone feel no pain.

Sentry: King, may I speak? Creon: Your very voice distresses me. Sentry: Are you sure that it is my voice, and not your conscience? Creon: By God, he wants to analyze me now! Sentry: It is not what I say, but what has been done, that hurts you. Creon: You talk too much.

I will not live by rules like those.

You chose to live, I chose to die.

Cling not to one mood, And deemed not thou art right, all others wrong. For whoso thinks that wisdom dwells with him, That he alone can speak or think alright, Such oracles are empty breath when tried. The wisest man will let himself be swayed By other's wisdom and relax in time.

I will suffer nothing as great as death without glory.

To err is common To all men, but the man who having erred Hugs not his errors, but repents and seeks The cure, is not a wastrel nor unwise.

Whose tale more sad than thine, whose lot more dire? O Oedipus, discrowned head, Thy cradle was thy marriage bed.