Quotes from Sophocles

It's not through words but actions that I want to set the luster on my life.

Show me a man who longs to live a day beyond his time who turns his back on a decent length of life, I'll show the world a man who clings to folly.

To a terrible place which men's ears             may not hear of, nor their eyes see it.

The stubbornest of wills Are soonest bended, as the hardest iron, O'er-heated in the fire to brittleness, Flies soonest into fragments, shivered through.

When misfortune comes, The wisest even lose their mother wit

I live in a place of tears.

ISMENE: How can I live alone, without her? CREON: Her? Don't even mention her-- she no longer exists. ISMENE: What? You'd kill your own son's bride? CREON: Absolutely: there are other fields for him to plow.

Come, Fate, a friend at need, Come with all speed! Come, my best friend, And speed my end! Away, away! Let me not look upon another day!

But if I am young, thou shouldest look to my merits, not to my years.

Orestes beloved. as you die you destroy me. You have torn away the part of my mind where hope was .

Thou lov'st to speak in riddles and dark words.

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.

For time alone shews a man's honesty, But in one day you may discern his guilt.

Reason is God's crowning gift to man, and you are right To warn me against losing mine. I cannot say— I hope that I shall never want to say!— that you Have reasoned badly. Yet there are other men Who can reason, too; and their opinions might be helpful. You are not in a position to know everything That people say or do, or what they feel: Your temper terrifies them—everyone Will tell you only what you like to hear.

Hail the sun! the brightest of all that ever Dawned on the City of Seven Gates, City of Thebes! Hail the golden dawn over Dirce's river Rising to speed the flight of the white invaders Homeward in full retreat! - Chorus

All my love gone for nothing. Days of my love, years of my love.

There is no more deadly peril than disobedience; States are devoured by it, homes laid in ruins, Armies defeated, victory turned to rout. White simple obedience saves the lives of hundreds Of honest folk. - Creon

Oh my love take me there. Let me dwell where you are. I am already nothing, I am already burning. Oh my love, I was once part of you—take me too!

This is Electra. Brilliant no more.

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

They're both mad, I tell you, the two of them. One's just shown it, the other's been that way since she was born.

Even in these straits our life is not as pitiful as you'd think, so long as we find joy in every hour.

Thy life is safe while any god saves mine.

No man, my lord, should make a vow, for if He ever swears he will not do a thing.