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Favorite Lines/Quotes from Sophocles' AJAX


  •       Well then, now you’ve seen his arrogance,
          make sure you never speak against the gods,
          or give yourself ideas of your own grandeur,
          if your strength of hand or heaped-up riches                                        [130]
          should outweigh some other man’s. A single day
          pulls down any human’s scale of fortune
          or raises it once more.  But the gods love                                 170
          men who possess good sense and self-control
          and despise the ones who are unjust.
  • I’m just as strong,
          with the work of my own hands I have attained
          achievements just as great, but, as you see,
          these Argive insults have quite ruined me.                                           [440]
          And yet I think I can affirm this much—
          had Achilles lived and been about to judge
          the man who should receive his weapons,
          the prize for being the finest man in war,
          no soldier would have put his hand on them                            520
          before I did. But now the sons of Atreus
          have dealt them to a fellow whose spirit
          will stoop to anything, and pushed aside
          all those triumphant victories of Ajax.
  • It is dishonourable for any man                                            560
          to crave a lengthy life, once he discovers
          the troubles he is in will never change.
          What joy is there for him when every day
          just follows on another, pulling him away
          or pushing him toward death? I would not pay
          for any sort of mortal man who’s warmed
          by futile hopes. A man of noble birth
          lives on with honour, or he dies in glory.
          Now you’ve heard everything I have to say. 
  • The sweetest life comes when one senses nothing—
          to lack all feeling is a painless evil—
          until you learn what joy and sorrow mean.
          Once you reach that stage, you must reveal
          the kind of man you are, your ancestry,
          to those who were your father’s enemies.
  • When a good man dies,
          it is not right to harm him, even though
          he may be someone you hate
  • Let me assure you,
          among human beings most are changeable,
          sometimes friendly, then sometimes bitter.
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