Quotes from Sophocles

But now I have a right to learn from you as you just learned from me.

who in his right mind would rather rule and live in anxiety than sleep in peace?

No one with any sense of self-control.

But don't convict me on sheer unverified surmise.

How wrong it is to take the good for bad, purely at random, or take the bad for good.

SOPHOCLES (born ca. 496 B.C., died after 413) was one of the three major authors of Greek tragedy. Of his 123 plays, only seven survive in full. Antigone, written and first performed in the late 440s B.C., is among his most often revived plays; its strong roles, and its conflict between individual morality (championed by a brave young woman) and the overbearing political needs of the state, have never lost their compelling interest through the generations.

Time alone can bring the just man to light— the criminal you can spot in one short day.

I think you're insane.

What if you're wholly wrong?

Not if you rule unjustly.

My city too, not yours alone!

Have you no sense? Poor misguided men, such shouting—why this public outburst? Aren't you ashamed, with the land so sick, to stir up private quarrels?

Aren't you ashamed, with the land so sick, to stir up private quarrels?

Acceptance—that is the great lesson suffering teaches

Oh god, believe it, Oedipus, honor the solemn oath he swears to heaven. Do it for me, for the sake of all your people.

Now as we keep our watch and wait the final day, count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last.

But the heart inside me sickens, dies as the land dies and now on top of the old griefs you pile this, your fury—both of you!

Look at you, sullen in yielding, brutal in your rage— you will go too far. It's perfect justice: natures like yours are hardest on themselves

For the love of god, Oedipus, tell me too, what is it? Why this rage? You're so unbending.

Strange, hearing you just now ... my mind wandered, my thoughts racing back and forth.

My god, my god—what have you planned to do to me?

For dullards know not goodness in their hand, Nor prize the jewel till 'tis cast away.

Oh no no, I think I've just called down a dreadful curse upon myself

I have a terrible fear the blind seer can see.