"This man has lived here a reasonably long time and has gladly talked in his life to no one, has spoken first to no one except — of necessity, since he is a neighbor and passes by — me, Pan. And he immediately regrets it, I'm sure."

"To say more than what's necessary I don't think is appropriate for a man. Except know this, child — for I wish to tell you a little about me and my character — if everyone were like me there wouldn't be law courts, and they wouldn't take them away to prisons, and there wouldn't be wars, but having goods in measure each man would be happy. But perhaps those things are more pleasing. Act that way. This difficult and grouchy old man will be out of your way."

"Even if you were a softy, you took the mattock, you dug, you were willing to work. In this part he most shows himself a man, whoever tolerates making himself equal to another, rich to poor. For this man will bear a change of fortune with self-control. You have given a sufficient proof of your character. I wish only that you remain as you are."

"It is not white hair that engenders wisdom."

"Conscience is a God to all mortals."

"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool."

"ὃν οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν ἀποθνῄσκει νέος"

"The truth sometimes not sought for comes forth to the light."

"We live, not as we wish to, but as we can."

"Riches cover a multitude of woes."

"ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεὸς [ἡμῖν] ἐπεφάνηϛ"

"Take notice, Pheidias, that you are human yourself, and that the wretched man is also human, in order that you may not covet what's beyond you. But when you say that you suffer from insomnia, you'll know the cause if you'll examine yourself what man you are. You take a stroll in the market-place; you come in forthwith; if your two legs are tired you take a luxurious bath; you rise up and eat greedily at pleasure; your life itself is a sleep. In fine, you have no ill; your disease is luxury through which you have passed — but something rather hackneyed, my young master, occurs to me — please excuse me — as the saying goes, you know, you are so crowded by your blessings, know it well, that you have no room to defecate."

"The Philoctetes is a most noble play; conspicuous even among the works of Sophocles for the grace and majesty of effect produced by the most simple means. There is more character in it than in any play in the Greek language; two or three of Euripides's best excepted."

"ὁ δ’εὔκολος μὲν ἐνθάδ’, εὔκολος δ’ἐκεῖ"

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

"Be his My special thanks, whose even-balanced soul From first youth tested up to extreme old age Business could not make dull, nor passion wild; Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole; The mellow glory of the Attic stage, Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child."

"μὴ φῦναι τὸν ἅπαντα νι- κᾷ λόγον."

"In a just cause the weak o'ercome the strong."

"ἐν ᾧ τλάμων ὅδ᾽, οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος, πάντοθεν βόρειος ὥς τις ἀκτὰ κυματοπλὴξ χειμερία κλονεῖται, ὣς καὶ τόνδε κατ᾽ ἄκρας δειναὶ κυματοαγεῖς ἆται κλονέουσιν ἀεὶ ξυνοῦσαι."

"Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand. Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Ægæan, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea."

"They are not wise, then, who stand forth to buffet against Love; for Love rules the gods as he will, and me."

"A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers should one day suffer reverse."

"Knowledge must come through action; thou canst have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial."

"There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; No wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big words are always punished, And proud men in old age learn to be wise."

"ὅσῳ κράτιστον κτημάτων εὐβουλία"

"There is an ancient saying, famous among men, that thou shouldst not judge fully of a man's life before he dieth, whether it should be called blest or wretched."

"Rash indeed is he who reckons on the morrow, or haply on days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past."

"... Sophocles, the poet loved and feared, Whose mighty voice once called out of her lair The Dorian muse severe, with braided hair, Who loved the thyrsus and wild dances weird."

"ἀλλ᾽ ἄνδρα, κεἴ τις ᾖ σοφός, τὸ μανθάνειν πόλλ᾽."

"μή νυν ἓν ἦθος μοῦνον ἐν σαυτῷ φόρει, ὡς φὴς σύ, κοὐδὲν ἄλλο, τοῦτ᾽ ὀρθῶς ἔχειν."

"The ideal condition Would be, I admit, that men should be right by instinct; But since we are all too likely to go astray, The reasonable thing is to learn from those who can teach."

"τὸ κακὸν δοκεῖν ποτ᾽ ἐσθλὸν τῷδ᾽ ἔμμεν' ὅτῳ φρένας θεὸς ἄγει πρὸς ἄταν"

"Happy are they who know not the taste of evil."

"Show me the man who keeps his house in hand, He's fit for public authority."

"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."

"It is a good thing To escape from death, but it is not great pleasure To bring death to a friend."

"πολλὰ τὰ δεινὰ κοὐδὲν ἀν- θρώπου δεινότερον πέλει."

"ὅστις γὰρ ἐν πολλοῖσιν ὡς ἐγὼ κακοῖς ζῇ, πῶς ὅδ᾽ οὐχὶ κατθανὼν κέρδος φέρει"

"Nothing so evil as money ever grew to be current among men. This lays cities low, this drives men from their homes, this trains and warps honest souls till they set themselves to works of shame; this still teaches folk to practise villainies, and to know every godless deed. But all the men who wrought this thing for hire have made it sure that, soon or late, they shall pay the price."

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

"Henceforth ye may thieve with better knowledge whence lucre should be won, and learn that it is not well to love gain from every source. For thou wilt find that ill-gotten pelf brings more men to ruin than to weal."

"Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver."

"τοῖς πᾶσι κοινόν ἐστι τοὐξαμαρτάνειν: ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἁμάρτῃ, κεῖνος οὐκέτ᾽ ἔστ᾽ ἀνὴρ ἄβουλος οὐδ᾽ ἄνολβος, ὅστις ἐς κακὸν πεσὼν ἀκῆται μηδ᾽ ἀκίνητος πέλῃ."

"The first part of the Ajax is prodigiously fine. I do not know that the agonies of wounded honour have ever been so sublimely represented... But the interest of the piece dies with Ajax. In the debates which follow, Sophocles does not succeed as well as Euripides would have done. The odes, too, are not very good."

"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."

"Time eases all things."

"For God hates utterly The bray of bragging tongues."