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
Always desire to learn something useful.
The rewards of virtue alone abide secure.
Whoever understands how to do a kindness when he fares well would be a friend better than any possession.
Silence is an ornament for women.
Whoever thinks that he alone has speech, or possesses speech or mind above others, when unfolded such men are seen to be empty.
Evil counsel travels fast.
Men should pledge themselves to nothing; for reflection makes a liar of their resolution.
A wise man does not chatter with one whose mind is sick.
The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water.
Do not grieve yourself too much for those you hate, nor yet forget them utterly.
Reverence does not die with mortals, nor does it perish whether they live or die.
For the wretched one night is like a thousand; for someone faring well death is just one more night.
To give birth is a fearsome thing; there is no hating the child one has borne even when injured by it.
There is an ancient saying among men that you cannot thoroughly understand the life of mortals before the man has died, then only can you call it good or bad.
Alas, how quickly the gratitude owed to the dead flows off, how quick to be proved a deceiver.
He who throws away a friend is as bad as he who throws away his life.
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.
A word does not frighten the man who, in acting, feels no fear.
Every man can see things far off but is blind to what is near.
Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future.
Men may know many things by seeing; but no prophet can see before the event, nor what end waits for him.
Despair often breeds disease.
Even a poor man can receive honors.
But this is a true saying among men: the gifts of enemies are no gifts and profitless.
No one longs to live more than someone growing old.
If you have done terrible things, you must endure terrible things; for thus the sacred light of injustice shines bright.
How sweet for those faring badly to forget their misfortunes even for a short time.
Whoever lives among many evils just as I, how can dying not be a source of gain?
Bear up, my child, bear up; Zeus who oversees and directs all things is still mighty in heaven.
I would rather miss the mark acting well than win the day acting basely.
There is some pleasure even in words, when they bring forgetfulness of present miseries.
All a man's affairs become diseased when he wishes to cure evils by evils.
There are some who praise a man free from disease; to me no man who is poor seems free from disease but to be constantly sick.
Gratitude to gratitude always gives birth.
If one begins all deeds well, it is likely that they will end well too.
A day lays low and lifts up again all human things.
Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes.
Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing.
No lie ever reaches old age.
If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom, you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.
Don't you know that silence supports the accuser's charge?
Those whose life is long still strive for gain, and for all mortals all things take second place to money.
I see the state of all of us who live, nothing more than phantoms or a weightless shadow.
A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.
Not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed.
A human being is only breath and shadow.
There is no greater evil for men than the constraint of fortune.
A man growing old becomes a child again.
There is no greater evil than anarchy.
