Top 500 Sophocles Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Best to live lightly, unthinkingly.”

— Sophocles

52. “Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure.”

— Sophocles

53. “A lie never lives to be old.”

— Sophocles

54. “A human being is only breath and shadow.”

— Sophocles

55. “Troubles hurt the most when they prove self-inflicted.”

— Sophocles

56. “Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.”

— Sophocles

57. “A short saying often contains much wisdom.”

— Sophocles

58. “A wise man does not chatter with one whose mind is sick.”

— Sophocles

59. “I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality and then in retrospect.”

— Sophocles

60. “I am the child of Fortune, the giver of good, and I shall not be shamed. She is my mother; my sisters are the Seasons; my rising and my falling match with theirs. Born thus, I ask to be no other man than that I am.”

— Sophocles

61. “A man growing old becomes a child again.”

— Sophocles

62. “Success, remember is the reward of toil.”

— Sophocles

63. “If you try to cure evil with evil you will add more pain to your fate.”

— Sophocles

64. “Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all.”

— Sophocles

65. “When I have tried and failed, I shall have failed.”

— Sophocles

66. “The kind of man who always thinks that he is right, that his opinions, his pronouncements, are the final word, when once exposed shows nothing there. But a wise man has much to learn without a loss of dignity.”

— Sophocles

67. “How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there’s no help in truth!”

— Sophocles

68. “Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish.”

— Sophocles

69. “God’s dice always have a lucky roll.”

— Sophocles

70. “Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.”

— Sophocles

71. “Astronomy? Impossible to understand and madness to investigate.”

— Sophocles

72. “Wise thinkers prevail everywhere.”

— Sophocles

73. “Reason is God’s crowning gift to man.”

— Sophocles

74. “Knowledge must come through action.”

— Sophocles

75. “What greater ornament to a son than a father’s glory, or to a father than a son’s honorable conduct?”

— Sophocles

76. “It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.”

— Sophocles

77. “He who throws away a friend is as bad as he who throws away his life.”

— Sophocles

78. “It can be no dishonor to learn from others when they speak good sense.”

— Sophocles

79. “It is best not to have been born at all: but, if born, as quickly as possible to return whence one came.”

— Sophocles

80. “A man though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind.”

— Sophocles

81. “The golden eye of justice sees, and requites the unjust man.”

— Sophocles

82. “The strongest iron, hardened in the fire, most often ends in scraps and shatterings.”

— Sophocles

83. “To those who err in judgment, not in will, anger is gentle.”

— Sophocles

84. “The dice of Zeus always fall luckily.”

— Sophocles

85. “And if my present actions strike you as foolish, let’s just say I’ve been accused of folly by a fool.”

— Sophocles

86. “A cunning fellow is man, inventive beyond all expectation, he reaches sometimes evil and sometimes good.”

— Sophocles

87. “Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.”

— Sophocles

88. “A mind at peace does not engender wars.”

— Sophocles

89. “Truly, to tell lies is not honorable; but when the truth entails tremendous ruin, To speak dishonorably is pardonable.”

— Sophocles

90. “To women silence gives their proper grace.”

— Sophocles

91. “None love the messenger who brings bad news.”

— Sophocles

92. “Many are the wonders of the world, and none so wonderful as man.”

— Sophocles

93. “Silence is an ornament for women.”

— Sophocles

94. “Ill-gotten gains work evil.”

— Sophocles

95. “The Most beautiful human deed, is to be useful to others.”

— Sophocles

96. “Let a man nobly live or nobly die.”

— Sophocles

97. “Time is a kindly God.”

— Sophocles

98. “There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?”

— Sophocles

99. “Unwanted favours gain no gratitude.”

— Sophocles

100. “If my body is enslaved, still my mind is free.”

— Sophocles