Men of ill judgment ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it.
- Sophocles

A brave man dead, not even though you hate him.
- Sophocles

I see the state of all of us who live, nothing more than phantoms or a weightless shadow.
- Sophocles

Do not grieve yourself too much for those you hate, nor yet forget them utterly.
- Sophocles

Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.
- Sophocles

There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?
- Sophocles

Men should pledge themselves to nothing; for reflection makes a liar of their resolution.
- Sophocles

Men may know many things by seeing; but no prophet can see before the event, nor what end waits for him.
- Sophocles

If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: “Thou shalt not ration justice.”
- Sophocles

Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law.
- Sophocles

You should not consider a man’s age but his acts.
- Sophocles

Ignorant men don’t know what good they hold in their hands until they’ve flung it away.
- Sophocles

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

It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself, and no one else, has made it.
- Sophocles

For death is not the worst, but when one wants to die and is not able even to have that.
- Sophocles

There is no witness so terrible, no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.
- Sophocles

Alas, how quickly the gratitude owed to the dead flows off, how quick to be proved a deceiver.
- Sophocles

Time alone reveals the just man; but you might discern a bad man in a single day.
- Sophocles

For those whose wit becomes the mother of villainy, those it educates to be evil in all things.
- Sophocles

Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.
- Sophocles

Whoever understands how to do a kindness when he fares well would be a friend better than any possession.
- Sophocles

You win the victory when you yield to friends.
- Sophocles

A soul that is kind and intends justice discovers more than any sophist.
- Sophocles

To give birth is a fearsome thing; there is no hating the child one has borne even when injured by it.
- Sophocles

For the wretched one night is like a thousand; for someone faring well death is just one more night.
- Sophocles

If you have done terrible things, you must endure terrible things; for thus the sacred light of injustice shines bright.
- Sophocles

Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes.
- Sophocles

Bear up, my child, bear up; Zeus who oversees and directs all things is still mighty in heaven.
- Sophocles

If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom, you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.
- Sophocles

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