Top 500 Sophocles Quotes (2025 Update)
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451. “Creon is not your downfall, no, you are your own.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

453. “Oft we know not till we see. Weak is human prophecy. Judge not, till the hour have taught thee What the destinies have brought thee.”

— Sophocles

454. “It is God’s giving if we laugh or weep.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

456. “Thou wouldst make a good monarch of a desert.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

463. “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

464. “The truth is ever best.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

470. “Everything is ideal to its parent.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

472. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

476. “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

477. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

482. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

485. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

492. “My destiny, my dark power, what a leap you made!”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

494. “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

495. “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

496. “La insolencia produce al tirano.”

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles