Top 500 Sophocles Quotes (2024 Update)
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451. “Thou wouldst make a good monarch of a desert.”

— Sophocles

452. “How sweet for those faring badly to forget their misfortunes even for a short time.”

— Sophocles

453. “For the gods, though slow to see, see well, whenever a man casting aside worship turns folly.”

— Sophocles

454. “Thou seek’st to part us, wrapping in soft words Hard thoughts.”

— Sophocles

455. “They are not wise, then, who stand forth to buffet against Love; for Love rules the gods as he will, and me.”

— Sophocles

456. “Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.”

— Sophocles

457. “If I am young, then you should look not to age but to deeds.”

— Sophocles

458. “As they say of the blind, Sounds are the things I see.”

— Sophocles

459. “If one begins all deeds well, it is likely that they will end well too.”

— Sophocles

460. “You should not consider a man’s age but his acts.”

— Sophocles

461. “Those swift to think are not always secure.”

— Sophocles

462. “It becomes one, while exempt from woes, to look to the dangers.”

— Sophocles

463. “Everything is ideal to its parent.”

— Sophocles

464. “Often have brief words laid men low and then raise them up.”

— Sophocles

465. “Who feels no ills, should, therefore, fear them; and when fortune smiles, be doubly cautious, lest destruction come remorseless on him, and he fall unpitied.”

— Sophocles

466. “No man will ever be rooted from the earth as brutally as you.”

— Sophocles

467. “Whoe’er imagines prudence all his own, Or deems that he hath powers to speak and judge Such as none other hath, when they are known, They are found shallow.”

— Sophocles

468. “It is best to live however one can be.”

— Sophocles

469. “O waste no fears on me; look to thyself.”

— Sophocles

470. “Enemies gifts are no gifts and do no good.”

— Sophocles

471. “But if I am young, thou shouldest look to my merits, not to my years.”

— Sophocles

472. “It is not in words that I should wish my life to be distinguished, but rather in things done.”

— Sophocles

473. “Electra, grieving for death, for her father, as a nightingale grieving always.”

— Sophocles

474. “The mind convicts itself in advance, when scoundrels are up to no good, plotting in the dark. Oh but I hate it more when a traitor, caught red-handed, tries to glorify his crimes.”

— Sophocles

475. “Fate will never punish a man for returning harm first done to him. Deceit matched by deceit, the tables turned: treachery pays you back in pain, not kindness.”

— Sophocles

476. “A light tip of the scales can put old bones to rest.”

— Sophocles

477. “The most powerful man in nothing without self-control and mental discipline.”

— Sophocles

478. “Creon is not your downfall, no, you are your own.”

— Sophocles

479. “El que no tiene temor ante los hechos tampoco tiene miedo a la palabra.”

— Sophocles

480. “You are nothing at all. Just a crack where the light slipped through.”

— Sophocles

481. “When the Greek mercenaries of Xenophon’s Anabasis, after months of marching and fighting in the mountains of Turkey, finally reached the Black Sea, one of them said, thankfully, “Now I can go home like Odysseus, flat on my back.”

— Sophocles

482. “Like a star his envied fortune mounted beaming far and wide: Now he sinks in seas of anguish, whelmed beneath a raging tide.”

— Sophocles

483. “Dionysus is the life-spirit of all green vegetation – ivy, pine tree and especially the vine; he is, in Dylan Thomas’ phrase, “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower.”

— Sophocles

484. “My god, my god – what have you planned to do to me?”

— Sophocles

485. “Greece and Poverty,” said the historian Herodotus, “have always been bedfellows”;.”

— Sophocles

486. “You are the curse, the corruption of the land!”

— Sophocles

487. “The mighty words of the proud are paid in full with mighty blows of fate, and at long last those blows will teach us wisdom.”

— Sophocles

488. “I try to say what I mean; it’s my habit.”

— Sophocles

489. “Who would choose uneasy dreams to don a crown when all the kingly sway can be enjoyed without?”

— Sophocles

490. “Pues veo que son efectivos, sobre todo, los hechos llevados a cabo por los consejos de los que tienen experiencia.”

— Sophocles

491. “Now is no time to delay. This is the edge of action.”

— Sophocles

492. “Words scare not him who blenches not at deeds.”

— Sophocles

493. “Burn that god of death that all gods hate!”

— Sophocles

494. “Of course you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgement, not till he’s shown his colors, ruling the people, making laws. Experience, there’s the test.”

— Sophocles

495. “Every slander wins belief Aimed at souls whose worth is chief:.”

— Sophocles

496. “And also because – Oh, my darling, my darling, forgive me; I’m going to cause you quite a lot of pain.”

— Sophocles

497. “Many years have passed since OEDIPUS solved the riddle of the Sphinx and ascended the throne of Thebes, and now a plague has struck the city.”

— Sophocles

498. “You drive me back down my desperation – that unclouded incurable never forgotten evil growing inside my life.”

— Sophocles

499. “For dullards know not goodness in their hand, Nor prize the jewel till ’tis cast away.”

— Sophocles

500. “Laius was killed, they say, by certain travelers.”

— Sophocles