101 Sophocles Quotes From The Ancient Greek Tragedian

Sophocles is considered to be one of the prime ancient Greek Tragedians amongst the three whose plays have still persisted and have been treated as the cornerstones of Tragedy in literature.

He had written more than 120 plays from which seven have remained in their original and complete form. He is best known for his famous plays 'Oedipus Rex,' 'Antigone,' 'Electra,' 'Ajax,' and the like which have been some of the finest Greek tragedies that had been contributed in the literary world.

Sophocles quotes ring with ancient wisdom that is still relevant to us in the present day. Here is a list of some of the best-known quotes by Sophocles from his life as well as from his famous plays.

If you like our content, you can check out other engaging articles like Greek quotes and tragedy quotes.

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Are you looking for some Sophocles quotes from his famous plays? Here is a wholesome list including Sophocles 'Antigone' quotes.

1. "We have only a little time to please the living, But all eternity to love the dead."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

2. "Tomorrow is tomorrow. Future cares have future cures, and we must mind today."

-Sophocles, 'The Oedipus Plays'.

3. "What has a man to do with fear? Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

4. "How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be when there’s no help in truth."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

5. "A city which belongs to just one man is no true city."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

6. "I was born to join in love, not hate."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

7. "Leave me to my own absurdity."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

8. "What an ugly, loveless life for a girl."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

9. "And instead my beloved, luck sent you back to me colder than ashes, later than shadow."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

10. "You're in love with impossibility."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

11. "You are nothing at all. Just a crack where the light slipped through."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

12. "Oh my love take me there. Let me dwell where you are. I am already nothing, I am already burning. Oh my love, I was once part of you—take me too!"

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

13. "Light of the sun, let me look upon you no more after today! I who first saw the light bred of a match accursed, and accursed in my living with them I lived with, cursed in my killing."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

14. "Do not turn your face from me. Don't take yourself away."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

15. "To throw away an honest friend is, as it were, to throw your life away."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

16. "Give me a life wherever there is an opportunity to live, and better life than was my father's."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

17. "I will not live by rules like those."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

18. "Oh but my love—now that you have travelled back down all those years to meet my heart, over all this grief of mine, do not oh love."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

19. "There is a kind of excellence in me and you—born in us—and it cannot live in shame."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

20. "If you try to cure evil with evil you will add more pain to your fate."

-Sophocles, 'Ajax'.

21. "But death was a wind too strong for that."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

22. "A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind."

-Sophocles.

23. "This is Electra. Brilliant no more."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

24. "All my love gone for nothing. Days of my love, years of my love."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

25. "Fear? What has a man to do with fear? Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

26. "How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be when there’s no help in truth."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

27. "The tyrant is a child of Pride who drinks from his sickening cup recklessness and vanity, until from his high crest headlong he plummets to the dust of hope."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

28. "No one loves the messenger who brings bad news."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

29. "I have been a stranger here in my own land: All my life."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

30. "So clear in this case were the oracles, so clear and false. Give them no heed, I say; what God discovers need of, easily he shows to us himself."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

31. "Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

32. "When I have tried and failed, I shall have failed."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

33. "Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that's wise! This I knew well, but had forgotten it, else I would not have come here."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

34. "Time, which sees all things, has found you out."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

35. "You're dreaming, girl, lost in a moving dream."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

Sophocles was greatly known as one of the earliest and the best Greek Tragedians in the History of Literature. Here is a list of his quotes on Tragedy and life in general.

36. "The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities."

-Sophocles.

37. "A good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

38. "To never have been born may be the greatest boon of all."

-Sophocles.

39. "You have your eyes but see not where you are in sin, nor where you live, nor whom you live with. Do you know who your parents are? Unknowing you are enemy to kith and kin in death, beneath the earth, and in this life."

-Sophocles.

40. "You can kill a man but you can't kill an idea."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

41. "Tomorrow is tomorrow. Future cares have future cures, and we must mind today."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

42. "You must remember that no one lives a life free from pain and suffering."

-Sophocles.

43. "When he endures nothing but endless miseries, what pleasure is there in living the day after day, edging slowly back and forth toward death?

-Sophocles.

44. "Trust dies but mistrust blossoms."

-Sophocles.

45. "Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse."

-Sophocles.

46. "I have no love for a friend who loves in words alone."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

47. "The nobleman should either live with honor or die with honor. That's all there is to be said."

-Sophocles.

48. "It is not right if I am wrong. But if I am young and right, what does my age matter?"

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

49. "Anyone who warms their heart with the glow of flickering hope is worth nothing at all."

-Sophocles.

50. "It's terrible when the one who does the judging judges things all wrong."

-Sophocles.

51. "No enemy is worse than bad advice."

-Sophocles.

52. "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, 'Oedipus Rex'.

53. "Count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

54. "Which would you choose if you could: pleasure for yourself despite your friends or a share in their grief?"

-Sophocles, 'Ajax'.

55. "Numberless are the world's wonders, but none more wonderful than man."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

56. "There is no greater evil than men's failure to consult and to consider."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

57. "When the laws are kept, how proudly his city stands! When the laws are broken, what of his city then?"

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

58. "Do not believe that you alone can be right."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

59. "Envy, sedition, strife, carnage and war, make up the tale of life."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus At Colonus'.

60. "For when youth passes with its giddy train, troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils, pain, pain forever pain; and none escapes life's coils."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus At Colonus'.

61. "Not to be born at all is best, far best that can befall, next best, when born, with least delay to trace the backward way."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus At Colonus'.

62. "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, 'Oedipus Rex'

63. "Do not fear for me. Make straight your own path to destiny."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

64. "How terrible - to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees!"

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

65. "Unwanted favors gain no gratitude."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus At Colonus'.

Sophocles has gifted the world of Literature a great deal of wisdom and literary art that have been treated as the cornerstone of Tragedy. Here is a list of famous Sophocles quotes.

66. "One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love."

-Sophocles.

67. "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.

68. "Go then if you must, but remember, no matter how foolish your deeds, those who love you will love you still."

-Sophocles.

69. "There's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money."

-Sophocles.

70. "I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality, and then in retrospect."

-Sophocles.

71. "Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver."

-Sophocles.

72. "A man though wise should never be ashamed of learning more and must unbend his mind."

-Sophocles.

73. "Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted."

-Sophocles.

74. "One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been."

-Sophocles.

75. "The happiest life is to be without thought."

-Sophocles.

76. "Look and you will find it - what is unsought will go undetected."

-Sophocles.

77. "All my care is you, and all my pleasure yours."

-Sophocles.

78. "Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life."

-Sophocles.

79. "Wild as you are, all that love you must love you still."

-Sophocles.

80. "Oblivion - what a blessing...for the mind to dwell a world away from pain."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

81. "Hide nothing, for time, which sees all and hears all, exposes all."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

82. "There is no happiness where there is no wisdom..."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

83. "But once the wrong is done, a man can turn his back on folly, misfortune too, if he tries to make amends, however low he's fallen and stops his bullnecked ways."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

84. "One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try."

-Sophocles.

85. "A soul that is kind and intends justice discovers more than any sophist."

-Sophocles.

86. "All men make mistakes."

-Sophocles.

87. "Wisdom outweighs any wealth."

-Sophocles.

88. "The pain we inflict upon ourselves hurt most of all."

-Sophocles.

89. "Fate has terrible power. You cannot escape it by wealth or war. No fort will keep it out, no ships outrun it."

-Sophocles.

90.  "What greater wound is there than a false friend?"

-Sophocles.

91. "Truly, to tell lies is not honorable; but when the truth entails tremendous ruin, to speak dishonorably is pardonable."

-Sophocles.

92. "Those who jump to conclusions may go wrong."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

93. "Success is dependent on effort."

-Sophocles.

94. "To speak much is one thing; to speak to the point another!"

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus At Colonus'.

95. "Stubbornness brands you for stupidity."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

96. "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, 'Antigone'.

97. "Death is not the worst evil, but rather when we wish to die and cannot."

-Sophocles.

98. "Weep not, everything must have its day."

-Sophocles, 'Oedipus Rex'.

99. "Reason is God's crowning gift to a man..."

-Sophocles, 'Antigone'.

100. "For Time calls only once, and that determines all."

-Sophocles, 'Electra'.

101. "If you are out of trouble, watch for danger."

-Sophocles.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for sophocles quotes then why not take a look at ancient quotes, or [Shakespeare quotes about death].