Oedipus at Colonus Quotes

“One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Not to be born at all
Is best, far best that can befall,
Next best, when born, with least delay
To trace the backward way.
For when youth passes with its giddy train,
Troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils,
Pain, pain forever pain;
And none escapes life's coils.
Envy, sedition, strife,
Carnage and war, make up the tale of life.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Unwanted favours gain no gratitude.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“To speak much is one thing; to speak to the point another!”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“We long to have again the vanished past, in spite of all its pain.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“The good leader repeats the good news, keeps the worst to himself.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Enough words! The criminals are escaping, we the victims, we stand still.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“A man's anger can never age and fade away, not until he dies. The dead alone feel no pain.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“The weak can defeat the strong in a case as just as mine.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Though he has watched a decent age pass by,
A man will sometimes still desire the world.
I swear I see no wisdom in that man.
The endless hours pile up a drift of pain
More unrelieved each day: and as for pleasure,
When he is sunken in excessive age,
You will not see his pleasure anywhere.
The last attendant is the same for all,
Old men and young alike, as in its season
Man's heritage of underworld appears:
There being no epithalamion,
No music and no dance. Death is the finish.

Not to be born beats all philosophy.
The second best is to have seen the light
And then to go back quickly whence we came.
The feathery follies of his youth once over,
What trouble is beyond the range of man?
What heavy burden will he not endure?
Jealousy, faction, quarreling, and battle--
The bloodiness of war, the grief of war.
And in the end he comes to strengthless age,
Abhorred by all men, without company,
Unfriended in that uttermost twilight
Where he must live with every bitter thing.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Best of children, sisters arm-in-arm, we must bear what the gods give us to bear-- don't fire up your hearts with so much grief. No reason to blame the pass you've come to now.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“And if to some my tale seems foolishness I am content that such could count me fool.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“I could not turn away from anyone
Like you, a stranger, or refuse to help him.
I know well, being mortal, that my claim
Upon the future is no more than yours.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Thy life is safe while any god saves mine.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Inviolable, untrod; goddesses,
Dread brood of Earth and Darkness, here abide.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“They see you and me: they know my pain's a fact, my revenge is empty breath.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“In his den the monster keep, Giver of eternal sleep.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Death the deliverer freeth all at last.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“But nothing else escapes all-ruinous time.
Earth's might decays, the might of men decays,
Honor grows cold, dishonor flourishes,
There is no constancy 'twixt friend and friend,
Or city and city; be it soon or late,
Sweet turns to bitter, hate once more to love.”
― sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“كلمة واحدة تجعل المصاعب تختفي، هذه الكلمة هي الحب.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“I’ve never known an honest man who can plead so well for any plea whatever.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Fate will never punish a man for returning harm first done to him. Deceit matched by deceit, the tables turned: treachery pays you back in pain, not kindness.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus

“It's little I ask for, and still less I get,
yet it is enough for me.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“The immortal
Gods alone have neither age nor death!
All other things almighty Time disquiets.
Earth wastes away: the body wastes away;
Faith dies; distrust is born.
And imperceptibly the spirit changes
Between a man and is friend, or between two cities.
For some men soon, for others in later time,
Their pleasure sickens; or love comes again.
And so with you and Thebes: the sweet season
Holds between you now; but time goes on,
Unmeasured Time, fathering numberless
Nights, unnumbered days: and on one day
They'll break apart with spears this harmony--
All for a trivial word.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Compassion limits even the power of God.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“The dead alone can feel no touch of spite.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“Thou seek'st to part us, wrapping in soft words Hard thoughts.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“أقدار الآلهة لا راد لها.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“رغم أن الآلهة ترى كل شئ، فإنها قد تتأخر في إنزال العقاب بمن يحيدون عن الطريق القويم ويخطئون.”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

“This way, O come! The angel of the dead,
Hermes, and veiled Persephone lead me on!”
― Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus