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.
Meaning of the quote
This quote by the Greek poet Sophocles means that life is unpredictable. Good things can happen to anyone, and bad things can also happen to anyone. No one can see the future or know what will happen next. It's important to remember that our lives are always changing, and we never know what's going to happen next.
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.
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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.
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The keenest sorrow is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
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Even a poor man can receive honors.
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Whoever thinks his friend more important than his country, I rate him nowhere.
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I would rather miss the mark acting well than win the day acting basely.
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Whoever lives among many evils just as I, how can dying not be a source of gain?
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Old age and the passage of time teach all things.
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There is a time when even justice brings harm.
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How sweet for those faring badly to forget their misfortunes even for a short time.
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A day lays low and lifts up again all human things.
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Reverence does not die with mortals, nor does it perish whether they live or die.
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Our happiness depends on wisdom all the way.
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Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure.
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Whoever grows angry amid troubles applies a drug worse than the disease and is a physician unskilled about misfortunes.
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Not all things are to be discovered; many are better concealed.
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Success is dependent on effort.
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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.
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No one longs to live more than someone growing old.
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Silence is an ornament for women.
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Children are the anchors of a mother’s life.
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A state is not a state if it belongs to one man.
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There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.
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Men should pledge themselves to nothing; for reflection makes a liar of their resolution.
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Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.
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One who knows how to show and to accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.
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For the wretched one night is like a thousand; for someone faring well death is just one more night.
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God’s dice always have a lucky roll.
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One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love.
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To be doing good deeds is man’s most glorious task.
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When trouble ends even troubles please.
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No one who errs unwillingly is evil.
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It is terrible to speak well and be wrong.
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A lie never lives to be old.
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For those whose wit becomes the mother of villainy, those it educates to be evil in all things.
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Better not to exist than live basely.
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Who seeks shall find.
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Look and you will find it – what is unsought will go undetected.
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It’s a terrible thing to speak well and be wrong.
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Those whose life is long still strive for gain, and for all mortals all things take second place to money.
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For shameful deeds are taught by shameful deeds.
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How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there’s no help in the truth.
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In a just cause the weak will beat the strong.
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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.
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No speech can stain what is noble by nature.
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There is no greater evil than anarchy.
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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.
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You should not consider a man’s age but his acts.
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If my body is enslaved, still my mind is free.
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It is the task of a good man to help those in misfortune.
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If one begins all deeds well, it is likely that they will end well too.
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The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water.
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The gods plant reason in mankind, of all good gifts the highest.
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When a man has lost all happiness, he’s not alive. Call him a breathing corpse.
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A wise man does not chatter with one whose mind is sick.
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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.
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Not even Ares battles against necessity.
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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.
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Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness.
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Reason is God’s crowning gift to man.
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But this is a true saying among men: the gifts of enemies are no gifts and profitless.
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Don’t you know that silence supports the accuser’s charge?
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War never takes a wicked man by chance, the good man always.
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Best to live lightly, unthinkingly.
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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.
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It was my care to make my life illustrious not by words more than by deeds.
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If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: “Thou shalt not ration justice.”
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Alas, how quickly the gratitude owed to the dead flows off, how quick to be proved a deceiver.
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Wisdom outweighs any wealth.
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There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?
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Foolishness is indeed the sister of wickedness.
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Man is not constituted to take pleasure in the same things always.
ancient Greek playwright
Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing.
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A man growing old becomes a child again.
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Not to be born is, past all prizing, best.
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Every man can see things far off but is blind to what is near.
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There is a point at which even justice does injury.
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For death is not the worst, but when one wants to die and is not able even to have that.
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No man loves the bearer of bad tidings.
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Time alone reveals the just man; but you might discern a bad man in a single day.
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Evil gains work their punishment.
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Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.
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No enemy is worse than bad advice.
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I see the state of all of us who live, nothing more than phantoms or a weightless shadow.
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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.
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No lie ever reaches old age.
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It is best to live however one can be.
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If you were to offer a thirsty man all wisdom, you would not please him more than if you gave him a drink.
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Isn’t it the sweetest mockery to mock our enemies?
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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.
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Bear up, my child, bear up; Zeus who oversees and directs all things is still mighty in heaven.
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All a man’s affairs become diseased when he wishes to cure evils by evils.
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No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat.
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Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.
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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.
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He who throws away a friend is as bad as he who throws away his life.
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Wise thinkers prevail everywhere.
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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.
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Evil counsel travels fast.
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There is no success without hardship.
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The dice of Zeus always fall luckily.
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Profit is sweet, even if it comes from deception.
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For the dead there are no more toils.
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Not even old age knows how to love death.
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Without labor nothing prospers.
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Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future.
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Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.
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There is no witness so terrible and no accuser so powerful as conscience which dwells within us.
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It is the merit of a general to impart good news, and to conceal the truth.
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Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.
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Enemies’ gifts are no gifts and do no good.
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Not knowing anything is the sweetest life.
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Whoever gets up and comes to grips with Love like a boxer is a fool.
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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.
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Hide nothing, for time, which sees all and hears all, exposes all.
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Gratitude to gratitude always gives birth.
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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?
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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.
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Hush! Check those words. Do not cure ill with ill and make your pain still heavier than it is.
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You win the victory when you yield to friends.
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Whoever understands how to do a kindness when he fares well would be a friend better than any possession.
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To live without evil belongs only to the gods.
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Always desire to learn something useful.
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A word does not frighten the man who, in acting, feels no fear.
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A human being is only breath and shadow.
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I see that all of us who live are nothing but images or insubstantial shadow.
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