Sophocles Quotes

“You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness-blind!”
― Sophocles, The Complete Plays of Sophocles

“ANTIGONE Yea, for these laws were not ordained of Zeus, And she who sits enthroned with gods below, Justice, enacted not these human laws. Nor did I deem that thou, a mortal man, Could’st by a breath annul and override The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven. They were not born today nor yesterday; They die not; and none knoweth whence they sprang. I was not like, who feared no mortal’s frown, To disobey these laws and so provoke The wrath of Heaven.  I knew that I must die, E’en hadst thou not proclaimed it; and if death Is thereby hastened, I shall count it gain. For death is gain to him whose life, like mine, Is full of misery.  Thus my lot appears Not sad, but blissful; for had I endured To leave my mother’s son unburied there, I should have grieved with reason, but not now. And if in this thou judgest me a fool, Methinks the judge of folly’s not acquit.”
― Sophocles, The Complete Works of Sophocles

“Therefore, while our eyes wait to see the destined final day, we must call no one happy who is of mortal race, until he has crossed life's border, free from pain.”
― Sophocles, Sophocles: The Complete Plays

“And now that Reason’s light returns, New sorrow in his spirit burns.”
― Sophocles, The Complete Works of Sophocles

“I should have praise and honor for what I have done: All these men here would praise me.
Were their lips not frozen shut with fear of you.
Ah the good fortune of kings. Licensed to say and do whatever they please." Antigone to Theben's king Creon”
― Sophocles, The Tragedies Of Sophocles: In English Prose, The Oxford Translation

“Pero éstas me han salvado; éstas me alimentan; éstas son hombres, no mujeres, para sufrir conmigo; que vosotros, como si os hubiera engendrado otro, no yo.”
― Sófocles, Sòfocles: Tragèdies

“È impossibile conoscere a fondo anima, pensiero, intendimento di un uomo, prima che abbia dato pubblica prova di sé nell’esercizio del potere, secondo le leggi.”
― Sophocles, Le tragedie: Aiace-Trachinie-Antigone-Elettra-Edipo Re-Filottete-Edipo a Colono

“O građani otadžbine Tebe, evo Edipa,
znalca čudesne zagonetke i prvog čoveka,
čiju sreću niko nije gledao bez zavisti!
Gledajte u kakav ponor sudbe grozne pade on!
Zato nikog, dan dok onaj poslednji ne dočeka,
neću proslavljati kao srećna, pre no doplovi
kraju veka svog a nikakav ne pogodi ga jad.”
― Sophocles, Grčke tragedije