The Greek playwright was born around 495 BC and died in 406 BC. He wrote over 50 plays, including Antigone, Electra, Ajax, Oedipus Rex, and Philoctetes. His plays are considered some of the greatest tragedies ever written.
Oedipus Rex is a tragedy that tells the story of Oedipus, who unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother. In order to atone for his sins, he travels to Thebes where he learns that he has killed his father and married his mother. He then goes on to kill himself.
His plays are known for their complex plots, powerful themes and emotional intensity.
Here are some quotes from Sophocles’ plays that will inspire you to write your next masterpiece.
You can kill a man but you cant kill a idea.
– Sophocles
Sophocles Quotes
1. “No enemy is worse than bad advice.” – Sophocles
2. “To speak much is one thing; to speak to the point another!” – Sophocles
3. “If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom, you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.” – Sophocles
4. “Silence supports the accuser’s charge.” – Sophocles
5. “The happiest life is to be without thought.” – Sophocles
6. “The good leader repeats the good news, keeps the worst to himself.” – Sophocles
7. “There is much that is strange, but nothing that surpasses man in strangeness.” – Sophocles
8. “Whatever is sought for can be caught, you know, whatever is neglected slips away.” – Sophocles
9. “You must remember that no one lives a life free from pain and suffering.” – Sophocles
10. “It’s terrible when the one who does the judging judges things all wrong.” – Sophocles
Best Quotes By Sophocles
11. “All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” – Sophocles
12. “We have only a little time to please the living. But all eternity to love the dead.” – Sophocles
13. “There is no greater evil than men’s failure to consult and to consider.” – Sophocles
14. “How terrible– to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees!” – Sophocles
15. “Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life.” – Sophocles
16. “In time you will know this well: For time, and time alone, will show the just man, though scoundrels are discovered in a day.” – Sophocles
17. “It is the dead, not the living, who make the longest demands.” – Sophocles
18. “Never honor the gods in one breath and take the gods for fools the next.” – Sophocles
19. “To throw away an honest friend is, as it were, to throw your life away.” – Sophocles
20. “Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.” – Sophocles
Wisdom Quotes of Sophocles
21. “Wisdom outweighs any wealth.” – Sophocles
22. “Let every man in mankind’s frailty consider his last day; and let none presume on his good fortune until he find Life, at his death, a memory without pain.” – Sophocles
23. “A man’s anger can never age and fade away, not until he dies. The dead alone feel no pain.” – Sophocles
24. “I will suffer nothing as great as death without glory.” – Sophocles
25. “Truth is always the strongest argument.” – Sophocles
26. “Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness; and reverence towards the Gods must be inviolate. Great words of prideful men are ever punished with great blows, and, in old age, teach the chastened to be wise.” – Sophocles
27. “One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.” – Sophocles
28. “Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.” – Sophocles
29. “A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind.” – Sophocles
Deep Sophocles Quotes
30. “Go then if you must, but remember, no matter how foolish your deeds, those who love you will love you still.” – Sophocles
31. “Numberless are the world’s wonders, but none more wonderful than man.” – Sophocles
32. “Fate has terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war. No fort will keep it out, no ships outrun it.” – Sophocles
33. “Of all vile things current on earth, none is so vile as money.” – Sophocles
34. “Man’s worst ill is stubbornness of heart.” – Sophocles
35. “Unnatural silence signifies no good.” – Sophocles
36. “A soul that is kind and intends justice discovers more than any sophist.” – Sophocles
37. “What greater wound is there than a false friend?” – Sophocles
38. “Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.” – Sophocles
39. “If you try to cure evil with evil, you will add more pain to your fate.” – Sophocles
Sophocles Quotes About Life
40. “One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.” – Sophocles
41. “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.” – Sophocles
42. “Look and you will find it – what is unsought will go undetected.” – Sophocles
43. “When misfortune comes, the wisest even lose their mother wit.” – Sophocles
44. “You’ll never find a man on Earth, if a god leads him on, who can escape his fate.” – Sophocles
45. “Do not grieve yourself too much for those you hate, nor yet forget them utterly.” – Sophocles
46. “To be doing good deeds is man’s most glorious task.” – Sophocles
47. “City which belongs to just one man is no true city.” – Sophocles
48. “To Never Have been born may be the greatest boon of all.” – Sophocles
49. “Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish.” – Sophocles
50. “There’s nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.” – Sophocles
51. “The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.” – Sophocles
