Sophocles

Quotes

1. Show me the man who keeps his house in hand,

   He's fit for public authority.

2. 

   I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare — I have no use for him, either.

3. 

   Ill-gotten gains work evil.

   p. 478

4. 

   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.

5. 

   There is no happiness where there is no wisdom;

   No wisdom but in submission to the gods.

   Big words are always punished,

   And proud men in old age learn to be wise.

6. 

   The ideal condition

   Would be, I admit, that men should be right by instinct;

   But since we are all too likely to go astray,

   The reasonable thing is to learn from those who can teach.

7. 

   It is a good thing

   To escape from death, but it is not great pleasure

   To bring death to a friend.

8. 

   Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.

9. 

   Love, unconquerable,

   Waster of rich men, keeper

   Of warm lights and all-night vigil

   In the soft face of a girl:

   Sea-wanderer, forest-visitor!

   Even the pure immortals cannot escape you,

   And mortal man, in his one day's dusk,

   Trembles before your glory.

   p. 471

10. 

    Evil seems good, soon or late, to him whose mind the god draws to mischief.

11. 

    Our Ship of State, which recent storms have threatened to destroy, has come safely to harbor at last.

12. 

    It is no weakness for the wisest man

    To learn when he is wrong.