Sophocles

JOCASTA:So clear in this case were the oracles,so clear and false. Give them no heed, I say;what God discovers need of, easilyhe shows to us himself.

Thy life is safe while any god saves mine.

There is much that is strange, but nothing that surpasses man in strangeness

It is but sorrow to be wise when wisdom profits not.

Death is not the worst thing; rather, when one who craves death cannot attain even that wish.

We have only a little time to please the living. But all eternity to love the dead.

Alas! How sad when reasoners reason wrong.

Reason is God's crowning gift to man, and you are rightTo warn me against losing mine. I cannot say__ hope that I shall never want to say!_ that youHave reasoned badly. Yet there are other menWho can reason, too; and their opinions might be helpful.You are not in a position to know everythingThat people say or do, or what they feel:Your temper terrifies them__veryoneWill tell you only what you like to hear.

Take these things to heart, my son, I warn you.All men make mistakes, it is only human.But once the wrong is done, a mancan turn his back on folly, misfortune too,if he tries to make amends, however low he's fallen,and stops his bullnecked ways. Stubbornnessbrands you for stupidity - pride is a crime.

Do not believe that you alone can be right.The man who thinks that,The man who maintains that only he has the powerTo reason correctly, the gift to speak, the soul__ man like that, when you know him, turns out empty.

For if any man thinks that he is alone is wise--that in speech, or in mind, he hath no peer--such a soul, when laid open, is ever found empty.

Your edict, King, was strong,But all your strength is weakness itself againstThe immortal unrecorded laws of God.They are not merely now: they were, and shall be,Operative for ever, beyond man utterly.I knew I must die, even without your decree:I am only mortal. And if I must dieNow, before it is my time to die,Surely this is no hardship: can anyoneLiving, as I live, with evil all about me,Think Death less than a friend?

In a just cause the weak will beat the strong!

Haemon: No city is property of a single man.Creon: But custom gives possession to the ruler.Haemon: You'd rule a desert beautifully alone.

For Time calls only once, and that determines all.

Thou wouldst make a good monarch of a desert

I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State.

There is no greater evil than men's failure to consult and to consider.