Top 500 Sophocles Quotes (2024 Update)
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401. “Whoever thinks his friend more important than his country, I rate him nowhere.”

— Sophocles

402. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

406. “Great Time makes all things dim.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

413. “When trouble ends even troubles please.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

416. “Evil counsel travels fast.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

420. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

424. “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

425. “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

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

— Sophocles

427. “I say that this crime is holy.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

433. “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

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

437. “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

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

— Sophocles

439. “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

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

— Sophocles

441. “A lie never grows old.”

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

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

— Sophocles

448. “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

449. “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

450. “The truth is ever best.”

— Sophocles