Sophocles

Literature Ancient Greek -496 – -406 96 quotes

One of the three great ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived.

Quotes by Sophocles

One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.

Ajax

A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind.

Antigone

Go on, then, where your passion leads you. But if you are wrong, you will know it soon enough.

Antigone

All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.

Antigone

It is not right to pervert justice for money.

Antigone

There is no art that teaches the mind of man to discern the future.

Antigone

Numberless are the world's wonders, but none more wonderful than man.

Antigone

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

Oedipus Rex

How dreadful it is to know the truth when the truth is of no help to those who know it.

Oedipus Rex

No man should be envied until the day of his death.

Oedipus Rex

Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life.

Phaedra

To be doing good deeds is man's most glorious task.

Philoctetes

Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.

Electra

Look and you will find it—what is unsought will go undetected.

Electra

The truth is always the strongest argument.

Electra

One must not think that a man who is a fool is a fool in all things.

Electra

It is a base thing for a man to be a slave to his belly.

Fragment

The best of life is but a dream.

Fragment

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

Antigone

No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.

Antigone