Sophocles

Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future.

Despair often breeds disease.

Fortune never helps the fainthearted.

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

If it were possible to cure evils by lamentation and to raise the dead with tears, then gold would be a less valuable thing than weeping.

No speech can stain what is noble by nature.

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

Every man can see things far off but is blind to what is near.

But this is a true saying among men: the gifts of enemies are no gifts and profitless.

A human being is only breath and shadow.

A broad-backed ox can be driven straight on his road even by a small goad.

Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing.

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

Wise thinkers prevail everywhere.

Whoever has a keen eye for profits, is blind in relation to his craft.

Oh child, may you be happier than your father, but in all other respects alike. And then you would not be bad.

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

Isn't it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?

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

Not to be born surpasses all reckoning. The next best thing by far, when one has been born is to go back as swiftly as possible whence one came.

Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.

Since he aims at great souls, he cannot miss. But if someone should slander me in this way, no one would believe him. For envy goes against the powerful. Yet slight men, apart from the great, are but a weak bulwark.

Whenever the deity contrives misfortunes for a man, he first harms their understanding.

Those swift to think are not always secure.

Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.

To err is common to all mankind, but having erred he is no longer reckless nor unblest who haven fallen into evil seeks a cure, nor remains unmoved.

For the gods, though slow to see, see well, whenever a man casting aside worship turns folly.

Evil gains work their punishment.

A word does not frighten the man who, in acting, feels no fear.

Heap up great wealth in your house, if you wish, and live as a tyrant, but, if the enjoyment of these things be lacking, I would not buy the rest for the shadow of smoke as against happiness.

It's impossible to speak what it is not noble to do.

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

Reverence does not die with mortals, nor does it perish whether they live or die.

All is disgust when a man leaves his own nature and does what is unfit.

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

These are the best of words if they are honest.

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

Obedience to authority saves many skins.

But to me this is both bitter and sweet.

Whoever thinks that he alone has speech, or possesses speech or mind above others, when unfolded such men are seen to be empty.

Even from the first it is meek to seek the impossible.

If I am young, then you should look not to age but to deeds.

To not know would be a source of pain.

But whoever gives birth to useless children, what would you say of him except that he has bred sorrows for himself, and furnishes laughter for his enemies.

To me no profitable speech sounds ill.

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

The right moment has come, which for men is the master of every deed.

Pardon, and keep silent, for what is shameful for women must be concealed among women.

How sweet for those faring badly to forget their misfortunes even for a short time.

There is some pleasure even in words, when they bring forgetfulness of present miseries.