Top 500 Sophocles Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “I live in a place of tears.”

— Sophocles

402. “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

403. “The penalty is death: yet hope of gain Hath lured men to their ruin oftentimes.”

— Sophocles

404. “Great Time makes all things dim.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

408. “A trifle is often pregnant with high importance; the prudent man neglects no circumstance.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

411. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

414. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

418. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

421. “When trouble ends even troubles please.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

424. “Evil counsel travels fast.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

430. “Now don’t, please, be quite so single-minded, self-involved, or assume the world is wrong and you are right. Whoever thinks that he alone possesses intelligence, the gift of eloquence, he and no one else, and character too... such men, I tell you, spread them open-you will find them empty.”

— Sophocles

431. “A lie never grows old.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

433. “I say that this crime is holy.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

436. “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

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

— Sophocles

438. “No one longs to live more than someone growing old.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

440. “It’s not through words but actions that I want to set the luster on my life.”

— Sophocles

441. “The dead alone can feel no touch of spite.”

— Sophocles

442. “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

443. “Even the stout of heart shrink when they see the approach of death.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

446. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles