Men of ill judgment ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it.
Meaning of the quote
Some people make poor choices because they don't appreciate the good things they already have. They take these things for granted and end up losing them. This quote by the Greek poet Sophocles reminds us to be grateful for what we have and not let it slip away.
About Sophocles
Sophocles was an ancient Greek tragedian who wrote over 120 plays, with seven surviving in complete form. He was the most celebrated playwright in Athens for almost 50 years, winning 24 out of 30 dramatic competitions he entered. Sophocles is known for his famous tragedies featuring Oedipus and Antigone, which are generally known as the Theban plays.
More quotes from Sophocles
There is some pleasure even in words, when they bring forgetfulness of present miseries.
ancient Greek playwright
It’s impossible to speak what it is not noble to do.
ancient Greek playwright
Do not grieve yourself too much for those you hate, nor yet forget them utterly.
ancient Greek playwright
Despair often breeds disease.
ancient Greek playwright
The rewards of virtue alone abide secure.
ancient Greek playwright
The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
ancient Greek playwright
Even a poor man can receive honors.
ancient Greek playwright
Whoever thinks his friend more important than his country, I rate him nowhere.
ancient Greek playwright
I would rather miss the mark acting well than win the day acting basely.
ancient Greek playwright
Whoever lives among many evils just as I, how can dying not be a source of gain?
ancient Greek playwright
Old age and the passage of time teach all things.
ancient Greek playwright
There is a time when even justice brings harm.
ancient Greek playwright
How sweet for those faring badly to forget their misfortunes even for a short time.
ancient Greek playwright
A day lays low and lifts up again all human things.
ancient Greek playwright
Reverence does not die with mortals, nor does it perish whether they live or die.
ancient Greek playwright
Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.
ancient Greek playwright
Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure.
ancient Greek playwright
Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes.
ancient Greek playwright
Not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed.
ancient Greek playwright
Success is dependent on effort.
ancient Greek playwright
A short saying often contains much wisdom.
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If you have done terrible things, you must endure terrible things; for thus the sacred light of injustice shines bright.
ancient Greek playwright
No one longs to live more than someone growing old.
ancient Greek playwright
Silence is an ornament for women.
ancient Greek playwright
Children are the anchors of a mother’s life.
ancient Greek playwright
A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.
ancient Greek playwright
There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.
ancient Greek playwright
Men should pledge themselves to nothing; for reflection makes a liar of their resolution.
ancient Greek playwright
Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.
ancient Greek playwright
One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.
ancient Greek playwright
For the wretched one night is like a thousand; for someone faring well death is just one more night.
ancient Greek playwright
God’s dice always have a lucky roll.
ancient Greek playwright
One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.
ancient Greek playwright
To be doing good deeds is man’s most glorious task.
ancient Greek playwright
When trouble ends even troubles please.
ancient Greek playwright
No one who errs unwillingly is evil.
ancient Greek playwright
It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.
ancient Greek playwright
A lie never lives to be old.
ancient Greek playwright
For those whose wit becomes the mother of villainy, those it educates to be evil in all things.
ancient Greek playwright
Better not to exist than live basely.
ancient Greek playwright
Who seeks shall find.
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Look and you will find it – what is unsought will go undetected.
ancient Greek playwright
It’s a terrible thing to speak well and be wrong.
ancient Greek playwright
Those whose life is long still strive for gain, and for all mortals all things take second place to money.
ancient Greek playwright
For shameful deeds are taught by shameful deeds.
ancient Greek playwright
How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there’s no help in the truth.
ancient Greek playwright
In a just cause the weak will beat the strong.
ancient Greek playwright
Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech is another.
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But whoever gives birth to useless children, what would you say of him except that he has bred sorrows for himself, and furnishes laughter for his enemies.
ancient Greek playwright
No speech can stain what is noble by nature.
ancient Greek playwright
There is no greater evil than anarchy.
ancient Greek playwright
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.
ancient Greek playwright
You should not consider a man’s age but his acts.
ancient Greek playwright
If my body is enslaved, still my mind is free.
ancient Greek playwright
It is the task of a good man to help those in misfortune.
ancient Greek playwright
If one begins all deeds well, it is likely that they will end well too.
ancient Greek playwright
The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water.
ancient Greek playwright
The gods plant reason in mankind, of all good gifts the highest.
ancient Greek playwright
When a man has lost all happiness, he’s not alive. Call him a breathing corpse.
ancient Greek playwright
A wise man does not chatter with one whose mind is sick.
ancient Greek playwright
There is no greater evil for men than the constraint of fortune.
ancient Greek playwright
I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.
ancient Greek playwright
A soul that is kind and intends justice discovers more than any sophist.
ancient Greek playwright
Much wisdom often goes with fewest words.
ancient Greek playwright
Not even Ares battles against necessity.
ancient Greek playwright
Men may know many things by seeing; but no prophet can see before the event, nor what end waits for him.
ancient Greek playwright
To give birth is a fearsome thing; there is no hating the child one has borne even when injured by it.
ancient Greek playwright
Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness.
ancient Greek playwright
Reason is God’s crowning gift to man.
ancient Greek playwright
But this is a true saying among men: the gifts of enemies are no gifts and profitless.
ancient Greek playwright
Don’t you know that silence supports the accuser’s charge?
ancient Greek playwright
War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always.
ancient Greek playwright
Best to live lightly, unthinkingly.
ancient Greek playwright
All is disgust when a man leaves his own nature and does what is unfit.
ancient Greek playwright
A fearful man is always hearing things.
ancient Greek playwright
It was my care to make my life illustrious not by words more than by deeds.
ancient Greek playwright
If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: “Thou shalt not ration justice.”
ancient Greek playwright
Alas, how quickly the gratitude owed to the dead flows off, how quick to be proved a deceiver.
ancient Greek playwright
Wisdom outweighs any wealth.
ancient Greek playwright
There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?
ancient Greek playwright
Foolishness is indeed the sister of wickedness.
ancient Greek playwright
Man is not constituted to take pleasure in the same things always.
ancient Greek playwright
Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing.
ancient Greek playwright
A man growing old becomes a child again.
ancient Greek playwright
Not to be born is, past all prizing, best.
ancient Greek playwright
Every man can see things far off but is blind to what is near.
ancient Greek playwright
There is a point at which even justice does injury.
ancient Greek playwright
For death is not the worst, but when one wants to die and is not able even to have that.
ancient Greek playwright
No man loves the bearer of bad tidings.
ancient Greek playwright
Time alone reveals the just man; but you might discern a bad man in a single day.
ancient Greek playwright
Evil gains work their punishment.
ancient Greek playwright
Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.
ancient Greek playwright
No enemy is worse than bad advice.
ancient Greek playwright
I see the state of all of us who live, nothing more than phantoms or a weightless shadow.
ancient Greek playwright
A wise doctor does not mutter incantations over a sore that needs the knife.
ancient Greek playwright
Fortune raises up and fortune brings low both the man who fares well and the one who fares badly; and there is no prophet of the future for mortal men.
ancient Greek playwright
To him who is in fear everything rustles.
ancient Greek playwright
No lie ever reaches old age.
ancient Greek playwright
It is best to live however one can be.
ancient Greek playwright
If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom, you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.
ancient Greek playwright
Isn’t it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?
ancient Greek playwright
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.
ancient Greek playwright
Bear up, my child, bear up; Zeus who oversees and directs all things is still mighty in heaven.
ancient Greek playwright
All a man’s affairs become diseased when he wishes to cure evils by evils.
ancient Greek playwright
No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat.
ancient Greek playwright
Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.
ancient Greek playwright
It is a base thing for a man among the people not to obey those in command. Never in a state can the laws be well administered when fear does not stand firm.
ancient Greek playwright
He who throws away a friend is as bad as he who throws away his life.
ancient Greek playwright
Wise thinkers prevail everywhere.
ancient Greek playwright
Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. This sacks cities, this drives men from their homes, this teaches and corrupts the worthiest minds to turn base deeds.
ancient Greek playwright
Evil counsel travels fast.
ancient Greek playwright
There is no success without hardship.
ancient Greek playwright
The dice of Zeus always fall luckily.
ancient Greek playwright
Profit is sweet, even if it comes from deception.
ancient Greek playwright
For the dead there are no more toils.
ancient Greek playwright
Not even old age knows how to love death.
ancient Greek playwright
Without labor nothing prospers.
ancient Greek playwright
Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future.
ancient Greek playwright
Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.
ancient Greek playwright
There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.
ancient Greek playwright
It is the merit of a general to impart good news, and to conceal the truth.
ancient Greek playwright
Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.
ancient Greek playwright
Enemies’ gifts are no gifts and do no good.
ancient Greek playwright
Not knowing anything is the sweetest life.
ancient Greek playwright
Whoever gets up and comes to grips with Love like a boxer is a fool.
ancient Greek playwright
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.
ancient Greek playwright
Hide nothing, for time, which sees all and hears all, exposes all.
ancient Greek playwright
Gratitude to gratitude always gives birth.
ancient Greek playwright
Ignorant men don’t know what good they hold in their hands until they’ve flung it away.
ancient Greek playwright
What house, bloated with luxury, ever became prosperous without a woman’s excellence?
ancient Greek playwright
Men of ill judgment ignore the good that lies within their hands, till they have lost it.
ancient Greek playwright
Whoever thinks that he alone has speech, or possesses speech or mind above others, when unfolded such men are seen to be empty.
ancient Greek playwright
Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.
ancient Greek playwright
You win the victory when you yield to friends.
ancient Greek playwright
Whoever understands how to do a kindness when he fares well would be a friend better than any possession.
ancient Greek playwright
To live without evil belongs only to the gods.
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Always desire to learn something useful.
ancient Greek playwright
A word does not frighten the man who, in acting, feels no fear.
ancient Greek playwright
A human being is only breath and shadow.
ancient Greek playwright
I see that all of us who live are nothing but images or insubstantial shadow.
ancient Greek playwright