Sophocles

For shameful deeds are taught by shameful deeds.

No lie ever reaches old age.

I see the state of all of us who live, nothing more than phantoms or a weightless shadow.

A day lays low and lifts up again all human things.

The rewards of virtue alone abide secure.

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

There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.

Whoever thinks his friend more important than his country, I rate him nowhere.

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

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

The gods plant reason in mankind, of all good gifts the highest.

If one begins all deeds well, it is likely that they will end well too.

Enemies' gifts are no gifts and do no good.

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.

A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.

Whoever gets up and comes to grips with Love like a boxer is a fool.

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

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.

Man is not constituted to take pleasure in the same things always.

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