Quotes from Sophocles

CREON: Am I to rule for others, or myself? HAEMON: A State for one man is no State at all. CREON: The State is his who rules it, so 'tis held.

so I believed—what a handsome prince you raised— under the skin, what sickness to the core.

Who would choose uneasy dreams to don a crown when all the kingly sway can be enjoyed without?

you brought my sperm rising back, springing to light fathers, brothers, sons—one murderous breed— brides, wives, mothers.

The blackest things a man can do, I have done them all!

I haven't come to mock you, Oedipus, or to criticize your former failings.

And if my present actions strike you as foolish, let's just say I've been accused of folly by a fool.

Fate will never punish a man for returning harm first done to him. Deceit matched by deceit, the tables turned: treachery pays you back in pain, not kindness.

By all means. And this time, I assume, even you will obey the god's decrees.

CHORUS: What canst thou plead? OEDIPUS: A plea of justice. CHORUS: How? OEDIPUS: I slew who else would me have slain; I slew without intent, A wretch, but innocent In the law's eye, I stand, without a stain.

I've never known an honest man who can plead so well for any plea whatever.

Oedipus: (looking up at the sun) 'LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT never again flood these eyes with your white radiance, oh gods my eyes.

Mother and father marked out that rock to be my everlasting tomb—buried alive. Let me die there, where they tried to kill me.

CREON: Can't you see? If a man could wail his own dirge before he dies, he'd never finish.

Oed. Must I not fear my mother's marriage-bed?

Oh but this I know: no sickness can destroy me

your own father's hands that served his once bright eyes so well— that made them blind.

Seeing nothing, children, knowing nothing, I became your father

Now is no time to delay. This is the edge of action.

Pues así como estoy, me voy a ir. Venid, venid, compañeros los que estáis presentes y ausentes; y con hachas en las manos corred hacia el lugar famoso. Y yo, puesto que mi opinión así ha cambiado, y yo mismo la aprisioné, quiero estar presente para salvarla; pues temo no sea la mejor resolución el vivir observando las leyes establecidas.

ANTIGONE: A sinless sinner, banned awhile on earth, But by the dead commended; and with them I shall abide for ever. As for thee, Scorn, if thou wilt, the eternal laws of Heaven. ... CREON: So am I purposed; never by my will Shall miscreants take precedence of true men, But all good patriots, alive or dead, Shall be by me preferred and honored. ... GUARD: Take it all in all, I deem A man's first duty is to serve himself.

A man through wit May pass another's wisdom in the race.

Home you'll come, in tears, cut off from the sight of it all, the brilliant rites unfinished.

I well believe it, to unwilling ears; None love the messenger who brings bad news