Quotes By Sophocles

A day lays low and lifts up again all human things.

What house, bloated with luxury, ever became prosperous without a woman's excellence?

Fortune raises up and fortune brings low both the man who fares well and the one who fares badly; and there is no prophet of the future for mortal men.

A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

You should not consider a man's age but his acts.

A human being is only breath and shadow.

Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.

When trouble ends even troubles please.

For those whose wit becomes the mother of villainy, those it educates to be evil in all things.

The gods plant reason in mankind, of all good gifts the highest.

There is no success without hardship.

If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: "Thou shalt not ration justice."

There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?

Do not grieve yourself too much for those you hate, nor yet forget them utterly.

Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.

I would rather miss the mark acting well than win the day acting basely.

Better not to exist than live basely.

It was my care to make my life illustrious not by words more than by deeds.

There is no greater evil for men than the constraint of fortune.

Isn't it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?

Not even old age knows how to love death.

The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.

Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.

Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.

For the dead there are no more toils.

A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.

Bear up, my child, bear up; Zeus who oversees and directs all things is still mighty in heaven.

Reason is God's crowning gift to man.

Old age and the passage of time teach all things.