Sophocles

Literature Ancient Greek -496 – -406 96 quotes

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

Quotes by Sophocles

The greatest evil is to do wrong and not be punished.

Fragment

Time, which sees all things, brings truth to light.

Ajax

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Fragment (often attributed to Socrates, but Sophocles also explored similar themes)

A man's character is his fate.

Fragment

The power of fate is a terrible thing.

Oedipus Rex

No one can escape his destiny.

Oedipus Rex

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

Fragment

It is not the walls that make the city, but the people who live within them.

Fragment

The only thing that is constant is change.

Fragment

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

Oedipus at Colonus -401

The ideal condition would be, I admit, that men should be right by instinct; but since we are all likely to go astray, the reasonable thing is to learn from those who can teach.

Oedipus Rex -429

A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers should one day suffer reverse.

Antigone -441

Hide nothing, for time, which sees all and hears all, exposes all.

Oedipus Rex -429

Death is not the worst; rather, in vain to wish for death, and not to compass it.

Electra -409

For God hates utterly the bray of bragging tongues.

Antigone -441

Money: There's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.

Oedipus Rex -429

A woman's vows I write upon the wave.

Ajax -458

No one loves the man whom he fears.

Antigone -441

Time eases all things.

Philoctetes -409

How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be when there's no help in truth.

Oedipus Rex -429