Quotes from Sophocles

The pain we inflict upon ourselves hurt most of all.

What greater wound is there than a false friend?

Take these things to heart, my son, I warn you. 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.

A soul that is kind and intends justice discovers more than any sophist

I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State.

All men make mistakes.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

Not from Hades' black and universal lake can you lift him. Not by groaning, not by prayers. Yet you run yourself out in a grief with no cure, no time-limit, no measure. It is a knot no one can untie. Why are you so in love with things unbearable?

Do I not live? Badly, I know, but I live.

To speak much is one thing; to speak to the point another!

Of all vile things current on earth, none is so vile as money.

Goodbye to the sun that shines for me no longer;

Whatever is sought for can be caught, you know, whatever is neglected slips away.

For Time calls only once, and that determines all.

Success is dependent on effort.

Reason is God's crowning gift to a man...

Weep not, everything must have its day.

It is my nature to join in love, not hate.

Tell me the news, again, whatever it is... sorrow and I are hardly strangers. I can bear the worst.

The only crime is pride.

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness; and reverence towards the Gods must be inviolate. Great words of prideful men are ever punished with great blows, and, in old age, teach the chastened to be wise.

Never honor the gods in one breath and take the gods for fools the next.

Yet I pity the poor wretch, though he's my enemy. He's yoked to an evil delusion, but the same fate could be mine. I see clearly: we who live are all phantoms, fleeing shadows.

Always desire to learn something useful.