Top 500 Sophocles Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 9 of 10

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

— Sophocles

402. “Strike at a great man, and you will not miss.”

— Sophocles

403. “None but a fool or an infant could forget a father gone so far and cold. No. Lament is a pattern cut and fitted around my mind – like the bird who calls Itys! Itys! endlessly, bird of grief, angel of Zeus. O heartdragging Niobe, I count you a god: buried in rock yet always you weep.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

405. “Whatever God has brought about Is to be borne with courage.”

— Sophocles

406. “It is not righteousness to outrage.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

409. “There is an ancient saying, famous among men, that thou shouldst not judge fully of a man’s life before he dieth, whether it should be called blest or wretched.”

— Sophocles

410. “Great Time makes all things dim.”

— Sophocles

411. “I well believe it, to unwilling ears; None love the messenger who brings bad news.”

— Sophocles

412. “For even bold natures flee, whenever they see Hades close to life.”

— Sophocles

413. “I live in a place of tears.”

— Sophocles

414. “It’s impossible to speak what it is not noble to do.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

416. “Pardon, and keep silent, for what is shameful for women must be concealed among women.”

— Sophocles

417. “Do not grieve yourself too much for those you hate, nor yet forget them utterly.”

— Sophocles

418. “Know’st not whate’er we do is done in love?”

— Sophocles

419. “False words do not bring forth fruit.”

— Sophocles

420. “Whoever lives among many evils just as I, how can dying not be a source of gain?”

— Sophocles

421. “Shame I do feel. And I know there is something all wrong about me – believe me. Sometimes I shock myself.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

423. “A broad-backed ox can be driven straight on his road even by a small goad.”

— Sophocles

424. “If to some my tale seems foolishness I am content that such could count me fool.”

— Sophocles

425. “Whoever thinks his friend more important than his country, I rate him nowhere.”

— Sophocles

Featured in: Country Quotes

426. “Henceforth ye may thieve with better knowledge whence lucre should be won, and learn that it is not well to love gain from every source. For thou wilt find that ill-gotten pelf brings more men to ruin than to weal.”

— Sophocles

427. “And instead my beloved, luck sent you back to me colder than ashes, later than shadow.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

429. “Evil counsel travels fast.”

— Sophocles

430. “Whoever gets up and comes to grips with Love like a boxer is a fool.”

— Sophocles

431. “What woe is lacking to my tale of woes?”

— Sophocles

432. “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

433. “When men have killed joy, I do not believe they still live.”

— Sophocles

434. “When trouble ends even troubles please.”

— Sophocles

435. “All my love gone for nothing. Days of my love, years of my love.”

— Sophocles

436. “Each say following another, either hastening or putting off our death – what pleasure does it bring? I count that man worthless whois cheered by empty hopes. No, a noble man must either live or die well.”

— Sophocles

437. “Men’s minds are given to change in hate and friendship.”

— Sophocles

438. “It is the merit of a general to impart good news, and to conceal the truth.”

— Sophocles

439. “Alas, how quickly the gratitude owed to the dead flows off, how quick to be proved a deceiver.”

— Sophocles

440. “Those whose life is long still strive for gain, and for all mortals all things take second place to money.”

— Sophocles

441. “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

442. “I say that this crime is holy.”

— Sophocles

443. “Whenever the deity contrives misfortunes for a man, he first harms their understanding.”

— Sophocles

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

444. “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

445. “A lie never grows old.”

— Sophocles

446. “You cannot know a man’s life before the man has died, then only can you call it good or bad.”

— Sophocles

447. “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

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

— Sophocles

449. “I will not live by rules like those.”

— Sophocles

450. “Compassion limits even the power of God.”

— Sophocles