Top 500 Sophocles Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.”

— Sophocles

2. “Remember there is no success without hard work.”

— Sophocles

3. “Laziness is the mother of all evils.”

— Sophocles

4. “Without labor nothing prospers.”

— Sophocles

5. “Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.”

— Sophocles

6. “I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.”

— Sophocles

7. “Always desire to learn something useful.”

— Sophocles

8. “Success is dependant on effort.”

— Sophocles

9. “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.”

— Sophocles

10. “Who seeks shall find.”

— Sophocles

11. “Stubbornness and stupidity are twins.”

— Sophocles

12. “To never have been born may be the greatest boon of all.”

— Sophocles

13. “If we always helped one another, no one would need luck.”

— Sophocles

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14. “It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it.”

— Sophocles

15. “To be doing good deeds is man’s most glorious task.”

— Sophocles

16. “There is no happiness where there is no wisdom.”

— Sophocles

17. “Tomorrow is tomorrow. Future cares have future cures, And we must mind today.”

— Sophocles

18. “Look and you will find it – what is unsought will go undetected.”

— Sophocles

19. “One word Frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”

— Sophocles

20. “I was not born to share the hate, but love.”

— Sophocles

21. “The soul that has conceived one wickedness can nurse no good thereafter.”

— Sophocles

22. “Kindness gives birth to kindness.”

— Sophocles

23. “You can kill a man but you cant kill a idea.”

— Sophocles

24. “Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing.”

— Sophocles

25. “The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water.”

— Sophocles

26. “Go then if you must, but remember, no matter how foolish your deeds, those who love you will love you still.”

— Sophocles

27. “Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.”

— Sophocles

28. “Chance never helps those who do not help themselves.”

— Sophocles

29. “I was born to join in love, not hate – that is my nature.”

— Sophocles

30. “One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.”

— Sophocles

31. “What people believe prevails over the truth.”

— Sophocles

32. “No enemy is worse than bad advice.”

— Sophocles

33. “Fate has terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war. No fort will keep it out, no ships outrun it.”

— Sophocles

34. “The truth is always the strongest argument.”

— Sophocles

35. “When you can prove me wrong, then call me blind.”

— Sophocles

36. “Death is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to die, and not be able to.”

— Sophocles

37. “Old age and the passage of time teach all things.”

— Sophocles

38. “Money: There’s nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.”

— Sophocles

39. “Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.”

— Sophocles

40. “Brave hearts do not back down back off.”

— Sophocles

41. “Not knowing anything is the sweetest life.”

— Sophocles

42. “Much wisdom often goes with fewer words.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

44. “The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.”

— Sophocles

45. “Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man; the power that crosses the white sea, driven by the stormy wind, making a path under surges that threaten to engulf him...”

— Sophocles

46. “Fear? What has a man to do with fear? Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day.”

— Sophocles

47. “Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise! This I knew well, but had forgotten it, else I would not have come here.”

— Sophocles

48. “You must remember that no one lives a life free from pain and suffering.”

— Sophocles

49. “Best to live lightly, unthinkingly.”

— Sophocles

50. “A lie never lives to be old.”

— Sophocles