Quotes from Sophocles

Alas for the seed of man.

Though he has watched a decent age pass by, A man will sometimes still desire the world. I swear I see no wisdom in that man. The endless hours pile up a drift of pain More unrelieved each day; and as for pleasure, When he is sunken in excessive age, You will not see his pleasure anywhere. - Choral Poem between Scenes V & VI, Oedipus at Colonus

Like father like daughter, passionate, wild . . . she hasn't learned to bend before adversity.

And remember that the captor is now the captive; the hunter is in the snare. What was won by stealth will not be kept.

You are nothing at all. Just a crack where the light slipped through.

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

O waste no fears on me; look to thyself.

And the dead man will hate thee too, with cause. Say I am mad and give my madness rein To wreck itself; the worst that can befall Is but to die an honorable death.

OEDIPUS: O, O, O, they will all come, all come out clearly! Light of the sun, let me look upon you no more after today! I who first saw the light bred of a match accursed, and accursed in my living with them I lived with, cursed in my killing.

Men are of little worth. Their brief lives last a single day. They cannot hold elusive pleasure fast; It melts away. All laurels wither; all illusions fade; Hopes have been phantoms, shade on air-built shade, since time began.

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 flood time you can see how some trees bend, and because they bend, even their twigs are safe, while stubborn trees are torn up, roots and all. And the same thing happens in sailing: make your sheet fast, never slacken,--and over you go

There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; No wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big words are always punished, And proud men in old age learn to be wise.

Not long now: the blazing dream of my head is crawling out.

Shall we not perish wretchedest of all, If in defiance of the law we cross A monarch's will?—weak women, think of that, Not framed by nature to contend with men. Remember

Creon: Why not? You and the whole breed of seers are mad for money. Tiresias: And the whole race of tyrants lusts for filthy gain.

Here he comes like a stealing shadow, like a footprint of death into the rooms, stalking the past with freshcut blood in his hands.

Invited, not inflicted; of all wounds, those that seem willful are the worst to bear.

What good were eyes to me? Nothing I could see could bring me joy.

they would praise me too if their lips weren't locked in fear. Lucky tyrants - the perquisites of power! Ruthless power to do and say whatever pleases them.

Of course you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgment, not till he's shown his colors, ruling the people, making laws. Experience, there's the test.

No? Believe me, the stiffest stubborn wills fall the hardest; the toughest iron tempered strong in the white-hot fire, you'll see it crack and shatter first of all. And I've known spirited horses you can break with a light bite—proud, rebellious horses. There's no room for pride, not in a slave, not with the lord and master standing by.

Things gained by unjust fraud are never secure

Harsh ways are taught by harshness.