Sophocles
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.Collection: Fate
We should not speak of one that prospers well As happy, till his life have run its course, And reached its goal. An evil spirit's gift In shortest time has oft laid low the state Of one full rich in great prosperity, When the change comes, and so the Gods appoint.Collection: Running
There are some who praise a man free from disease; to me no man who is poor seems free from disease but to be constantly sick.Collection: Men
For the wretched one night is like a thousand; for someone faring well death is just one more night.Collection: Good Night
More men come to doom through dirty profits than are kept by them.Collection: Dirty
Heap up great wealth in your house, if you wish, and live as a tyrant, but, if the enjoyment of these things be lacking, I would not buy the rest for the shadow of smoke as against happiness.Collection: Tyrants
Pardon, and keep silent, for what is shameful for women must be concealed among women.Collection: Forgiveness
One must obey the man whom the city sets up in power in small things and in justice and in its opposite.Collection: Men
A human being is only breath and shadow.Collection: Shadow
A day lays low and lifts up again all human things.Collection: Lows
A prudent man should neglect no circumstances.Collection: Men
A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers should one day suffer reverse.Collection: Mind
To women silence gives their proper grace.Collection: Giving
Let a man nobly live or nobly die.Collection: Men
For every nation that lives peaceably, there will be many others to grow hard and push their arrogance to extremes; the gods attend to these things slowly. But they attend to those who put off God and turn to madness.Collection: Arrogance
Nobly to live, or else nobly to die,Befits proud birth.Collection: Proud
Think not that your word and yours alone must be right.Collection: Thinking
Give me a life wherever there is an opportunity to live, and better life than was my father's.Collection: Father
The stubbornest of wills Are soonest bended, as the hardest iron, O'er-heated in the fire to brittleness,Flies soonest into fragments, shivered through.Collection: Fire
Goodbye to the sun that shines for me no longer.Collection: Goodbye
Men's minds are given to change in hate and friendship.Collection: Hate
How terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it.Collection: Doe
To those who err in judgment, not in will, anger is gentle.Collection: Anger
Nothing so evil as money ever grew to be current among men. This lays cities low, this drives men from their homes, this trains and warps honest souls till they set themselves to works of shame; this still teaches folk to practise villainies, and to know every godless deed. But all the men who wrought this thing for hire have made it sure that, soon or late, they shall pay the price.Collection: Home
Often have brief words laid men low and then raise them up.Collection: Men
Trouble brings trouble upon trouble.Collection: Trouble
To live without evil belongs only to the gods.Collection: Evil
You clearly hate to yield, but you will regret it when your anger has passed. Such natures are justly the hardest for themselves to bear.Collection: Regret
In darkness one may be ashamed of what one does, without the shame of disgrace.Collection: Darkness
Best of children, sisters arm-in-arm, we must bear what the gods give us to bear-- don't fire up your hearts with so much grief. No reason to blame the pass you've come to now.Collection: Children
The joy that comes past hope and beyond expectation is like no other pleasure in extent.Collection: Past
To throw awayan honest friend is, as it were, to throw your life away.Collection: Friendship
Hope has often caused the love of gain to ruin men.Collection: Men
In a just cause it is right to be confident.Collection: Confidence
There are times when even justice brings harm with it.Collection: Justice
If I am young, then you should look not to age but to deeds.Collection: Age
Whoever has a keen eye for profits, is blind in relation to his craft.Collection: Eye
How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there's no help in truth!Collection: Knowledge
If you have done terrible things, you must endure terrible things; for thus the sacred light of injustice shines bright.Collection: Shine Bright
True, as unwisdom is the worst of illsCollection: Worst
It is best to live anyhow, as one may; do not be afraid of marriage with your mother! Many have lain with their mothers in dreams too. It is he to whom such things are nothing who puts up with life best.Collection: Mother
There is an ancient saying, famous among men, that thou shouldst not judge fully of a man's life before he dieth, whether it should be called blest or wretched.Collection: Life
One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.Collection: Kindness
Sleep's the only medicine that gives ease.Collection: Sleep
Heaven never helps the man who will not help himselfCollection: Inspirational
Knowledge must come through action. You can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.Collection: Inspirational
If men live decently it is because discipline saves their very lives for them.Collection: Men
Love, unconquerable, Waster of rich men, keeper Of warm lights and all-night vigil In the soft face of a girl: Sea-wanderer, forest-visitor! Even the pure immortals cannot escape you, And mortal man, in his one day's dusk, Trembles before your glory.Collection: Love