Top 500 Sophocles Quotes (2025 Update)
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351. “Even from the first it is meek to seek the impossible.”

— Sophocles

352. “Fortune raises up and fortune brings low both the man who fares well and the one who fares badly; and there is no prophet of the future for mortal men.”

— Sophocles

353. “Of all vile things current on earth, none is so vile as money.”

— Sophocles

354. “No man loves life like him that’s growing old.”

— Sophocles

355. “It is a base thing for a man among the people not to obey those in command. Never in a state can the laws be well administered when fear does not stand firm.”

— Sophocles

356. “One’s own escape from troubles makes one glad; but bringing friends to trouble is hard grief.”

— Sophocles

357. “To me, excessive silence seems to bode as ill as too much shouting.”

— Sophocles

358. “Look how men live, always precariously balanced between good and bad fortune.”

— Sophocles

359. “Ignorant men do not know what good they hold in their hands until they’ve flung it away.”

— Sophocles

360. “Even a poor man can receive honors.”

— Sophocles

361. “There are some who praise a man free from disease; to me no man who is poor seems free from disease but to be constantly sick.”

— Sophocles

362. “Rash indeed is he who reckons on tomorrow, or happily on the days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past.”

— Sophocles

363. “Think not that your word and yours alone must be right.”

— Sophocles

364. “Sleep, thou patron of mankind, Great physician of the mind Who does nor pain nor sorrow know, Sweetest balm of every woe.”

— Sophocles

365. “One thinking it is right to speak all things, whether the word is fit for speech or unutterable.”

— Sophocles

366. “If you are out of trouble, watch for danger. And when you live well, then consider the most your life, lest ruin take it unawares.”

— Sophocles

367. “The man from whom the joys of life have departed is living no more, but should be counted with the dead.”

— Sophocles

368. “Whoever thinks that he alone has speech, or possesses speech or mind above others, when unfolded such men are seen to be empty.”

— Sophocles

369. “There is no greater evil for men than the constraint of fortune.”

— Sophocles

370. “It was my care to make my life illustrious not by words more than by deeds.”

— Sophocles

371. “Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes.”

— Sophocles

372. “Yes I know sorrow. Know it far too well. My life is a tunnel choked by the sweepings of dread.”

— Sophocles

373. “To err is common to all mankind, but having erred he is no longer reckless nor unblest who haven fallen into evil seeks a cure, nor remains unmoved.”

— Sophocles

374. “It made our hair stand up in panic fear.”

— Sophocles

375. “Oh my love take me there. Let me dwell where you are. I am already nothing, I am already burning. Oh my love, I was once part of you – take me too!”

— Sophocles

376. “What house, bloated with luxury, ever became prosperous without a woman’s excellence?”

— Sophocles

377. “No one who errs unwillingly is evil.”

— Sophocles

378. “To live without evil belongs only to the gods.”

— Sophocles

379. “More men come to doom through dirty profits than are kept by them.”

— Sophocles

380. “What is to be taught I learn; what is to be discovered I seek; what is to be prayed for I sought from the gods.”

— Sophocles

381. “Hope has often caused the love of gain to ruin men.”

— Sophocles

382. “To know that all is well, even if late will come to know it, is at least some gain.”

— Sophocles

383. “To give birth is a fearsome thing; there is no hating the child one has borne even when injured by it.”

— Sophocles

384. “No speech can stain what is noble by nature.”

— Sophocles

385. “And the dead man will hate thee too, with cause. Say I am mad and give my madness rein To wreck itself; the worst that can befall Is but to die an honorable death.”

— Sophocles

386. “Not to be born surpasses all reckoning. The next best thing by far, when one has been born is to go back as swiftly as possible whence one came.”

— Sophocles

387. “No oath can be too binding for a lover.”

— Sophocles

388. “Of all ill, Self-chosen sorrows are the worst to bear.”

— Sophocles

389. “Heap up great wealth in your house, if you wish, and live as a tyrant, but, if the enjoyment of these things be lacking, I would not buy the rest for the shadow of smoke as against happiness.”

— Sophocles

390. “Man is not constituted to take pleasure in the same things always.”

— Sophocles

391. “Great Time makes all things dim.”

— Sophocles

392. “The rewards of virtue alone abide secure.”

— Sophocles

393. “Ah! terrible is knowledge to the man Whom knowledge profits not.”

— Sophocles

394. “But this is a true saying among men: the gifts of enemies are no gifts and profitless.”

— Sophocles

395. “A day lays low and lifts up again all human things.”

— Sophocles

396. “Men are of little worth. Their brief lives last a single day. They cannot hold elusive pleasure fast; It melts away. All laurels wither; all illusions fade; Hopes have been phantoms, shade on air-built shade, since time began.”

— Sophocles

397. “Having advanced to the limit of boldness, child, you have stumbled against the lofty pedestal of Justice.”

— Sophocles

398. “It is not righteousness to outrage.”

— Sophocles

399. “No wound is worse than counterfeited love.”

— Sophocles

400. “I live in a place of tears.”

— Sophocles