Sophocles

Explore 21 quotes by Sophocles

There are many wonderful things, and nothing is more wonderful than man.

Sophocles

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Topic

Nature of man Man and animals

Author

Sophocles

Source

Antigone

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragic play Greek theater

Language

Greek

Time

441 BC 440s 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Sophocles. Ἀντιγόνη [Antigone]. c. 441 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.

Sophocles

Oedipus Rex

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Speaker

Second Messenger

Author

Sophocles

Source

Oedipus Rex

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

430 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. c. 429 BC, Theatre of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be
When there's no help in truth!

Sophocles

Oedipus Rex

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Topic

Truth hurts Truth Ignorance is bliss

Speaker

Teiresias

Author

Sophocles

Source

Oedipus Rex

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

430 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. c. 429 BC, Theatre of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

Reason is God's crowning gift to man.

Sophocles

Antigone

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Topic

Reason Gifts of God

Speaker

Haemon

Author

Sophocles

Source

Antigone

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

442 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Ἀντιγόνη [Antigone]. c. 441 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

For God hates utterly
The bray of bragging tongues.

Sophocles

Antigone

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Topic

Bragging and boasting

Speaker

Chorus

Author

Sophocles

Source

Antigone

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

442 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Ἀντιγόνη [Antigone]. c. 441 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

The happiest life consists in ignorance.

Sophocles

Ajax

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Topic

Ignorance is bliss Ignorance Happiness

Speaker

Ajax

Author

Sophocles

Source

Ajax

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragic play Greek theater

Language

Greek

Time

442 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Sophocles. Αἴας [Ajax]. c. 441 BCE, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Ajax." Electra and Other Plays, translated by David Raeburn. Penguin Classics, 2008.

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

Sophocles

Antigone

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Topic

Political upheaval

Speaker

Creon

Author

Sophocles

Source

Antigone

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Greek

Time

442 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Ἀντιγόνη [Antigone]. c. 441 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

A woman's vows I write upon the wave.

Sophocles

Unknown drama

More information about this quote

Author

Sophocles

Source

Unknown drama

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

400 BC 400s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Sophocles. Unnamed drama. 5th century BC, fragment 694.

In view of that, conceal nothing! For all things are unfolded by all-seeing and all-hearing time.

Sophocles

More information about this quote

Topic

Forthrightness Openness

Author

Sophocles

Source

Hipponous

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek theater

Language

Greek

Time

468 BC 460s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Sophocles. "Hipponous." Fragments. c. 468 BC, frag. 301.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Hipponous." Fragments, edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones. Harvard University Press, 1996, frag. 301.

The tyrant is a child of Pride
Who drinks from his great sickening cup
Recklessness and vanity,
Until from his high crest headlong
He plummets to the dust of hope.

Sophocles

Oedipus Rex

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Topic

Tyrants

Speaker

Chorus

Author

Sophocles

Source

Oedipus Rex

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

430 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. c. 429 BC, Theatre of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

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.

Sophocles

Antigone

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Topic

Power of love Love

Speaker

Chorus

Author

Sophocles

Source

Antigone

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

442 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Ἀντιγόνη [Antigone]. c. 441 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.

Sophocles

Antigone

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Topic

Effects of grief Grief

Speaker

Ismene

Author

Sophocles

Source

Antigone

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

442 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Ἀντιγόνη [Antigone]. c. 441 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

Not to be born is, past all prizing, best.

Sophocles

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Topic

Being born The human condition

Author

Sophocles

Source

Oedipus at Colonus

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragic play Greek theater

Language

Greek

Time

406 BC 400s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Sophocles. Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ [Oedipus at Colonus]. 401 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Oedipus at Colonus." The Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Odeipus at Colonus, translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics, 2000.

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

Sophocles

Antigone

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More information about this quote

Topic

Wisdom

Speaker

Teiresias

Author

Sophocles

Source

Antigone

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

442 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Ἀντιγόνη [Antigone]. c. 441 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Antigone." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

Time eases all things.

Sophocles

Oedipus Rex

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Topic

Effects of time Time

Speaker

Creon

Author

Sophocles

Source

Oedipus Rex

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

430 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Oedipus Rex. c. 429 BC, Theatre of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Oedipus Rex." The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. Mariner Books, 2002.

No man loves like him that's growing old.

Sophocles

Acrisius

More information about this quote

Topic

Aging

Author

Sophocles

Source

Acrisius

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

400 BC 400s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Sophocles. Acrisius. 5th century BC, fragment 64.

Not to be born surpasses thought and speech.
The second best is to have seen the light
And then to go back quickly whence we came.

Sophocles

Oedipus at Colonus

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Topic

Being born Death as a blessing

Speaker

Chorus

Author

Sophocles

Source

Oedipus at Colonus

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

406 BC 400s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sophocles. Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ [Oedipus at Colonus]. 401 BC, Festival of Dionysus, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Oedipus at Colonus." The Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Odeipus at Colonus, translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics, 2000.

Of all human ills, greatest is fortune's wayward tyranny.

Sophocles

Ajax

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Topic

Bad luck Fortune The human condition

Speaker

Tecmessa

Author

Sophocles

Source

Ajax

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragic play Greek theater

Language

Greek

Time

430 BC 430s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Sophocles. Αἴας [Ajax]. c. 441 BCE, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Ajax." Electra and Other Plays, translated by David Raeburn. Penguin Classics, 2008.

Silence gives the proper grace to women.

Sophocles

Ajax

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Topic

Discreet women Patriarchy

Speaker

Tecmessa

Author

Sophocles

Source

Ajax

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

440 BC 440s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Sophocles. Αἴας [Ajax]. c. 441 BCE, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Sophocles. "Ajax." Electra and Other Plays, translated by David Raeburn. Penguin Classics, 2008.

Sons are the anchors of a mother's life.

Sophocles

Phaedra

More information about this quote

Topic

Mothers and sons Parents and children

Author

Sophocles

Source

Phaedra

Medium

Play

Genre

Greek tragedy Tragedy (play)

Language

Greek

Time

400 BC 400s BC 5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Sophocles. Phaedra. c. 5th century BC, fragment 612.