Top 500 Sophocles Quotes (2026 Update)
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451. “The dead alone can feel no touch of spite.”

— Sophocles

452. “Don’t you know that silence supports the accuser’s charge?”

— Sophocles

453. “By God, I’ll have more booty in a moment.”

— Sophocles

454. “All our mortal lives are set in danger and perplexity: one day to prosper, and the next – who knows? When all is well, then look for rocks ahead.”

— Sophocles

455. “Rose the joint evil that is now o’erflowing. And the old happiness in that past day Was truly happy, but the present hour Hath pain, crime, ruin: – whatsoe’er of ill Mankind have named, not one is absent here.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

459. “One must obey the man whom the city sets up in power in small things and in justice and in its opposite.”

— Sophocles

460. “If they are just, they are better than clever.”

— Sophocles

461. “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

462. “The truth is ever best.”

— Sophocles

463. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

473. “Everything is ideal to its parent.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

480. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

485. “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

486. “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

487. “La insolencia produce al tirano.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

491. “I don’t know. And when I don’t, I keep quiet.”

— Sophocles

492. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— 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. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles