Quotes from Sophocles

OEDIPUS: Upon the murderer I invoke this curse- whether he is one man and all unknown, or one of many- may he wear out his life in misery to miserable doom! If with my knowledge he lives at my hearth I pray that I myself may feel my curse. On you I lay my charge to fulfill all this for me, for the God, and for this land of ours destroyed and blighted, by the God forsaken.

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

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

Oft we know not till we see. Weak is human prophecy. Judge not, till the hour have taught thee What the destinies have brought thee.

Look and learn all citizens of Thebes. This is Oedipus. He, who read the famous riddle, and we hailed chief of men, All envied his power, glory, and good fortune. Now upon his head the sea of disaster crashes down. Mortality is man's burden. Keep your eyes fixed on your last day. Call no man happy until he reaches it, and finds rest from suffering.

It's no city at all, owned by one man alone.

Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man

Ah! terrible is knowledge to the man Whom knowledge profits not.

Love, you mock us for your sport.

There's no room for pride, not in a slave, not with the lord and master standing by.

It is the dead Not the living, who make the longest demands: We die for ever...

I was born to join in love, not hate— that is my nature.

But when a god             strikes harm, a worse man often foils his better.

All men make mistakes, it is only human. But once the wrong is done, a man can turn his back on folly, misfortune too, if he tries to make amends, however low he's fallen, and stops his bullnecked ways. Stubbornness brands you for stupidity—pride is a crime.

The griefs we cause ourselves cut deepest of all.

Keep your eyes on that last days, on your dying. Happiness and peace, they were not yours unless at death you can look back on your life and say I lived, I did not suffer.

ODYSSEUS             I cannot recommend a rigid spirit.

Art thou deaf when friends are banned as foes?

just thinking of all your days to come, the bitterness, the life that rough mankind will thrust upon you.

What men have seen they know;             but what shall come hereafter             no man before the event can see, 1420    nor what end waits for him.

Rose the joint evil that is now o'erflowing. And the old happiness in that past day Was truly happy, but the present hour Hath pain, crime, ruin:—whatsoe'er of ill Mankind have named, not one is absent here.

The good befriend themselves.

Wise words; but O, when wisdom brings no profit, To be wise is to suffer.

Good news. I tell you even the hardest things to bear, if they should turn out well, all would be well.