Oedipus the King Quotes

“Monster! thy silence would incense a flint.”

“Thou art the man, Thou the accursed polluter of this land.”

“Yea, I am free, strong in the strength of truth.”

“Offspring of endless Night, thou hast no power O’er me or any man who sees the sun.”

“Thou thyself art thine own bane.”

“Thou lov’st to speak in riddles and dark words.”

“Many, my children, are the tears I’ve wept, And threaded many a maze of weary thought.”

“A blight is on our harvest in the ear, A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds, A blight on wives in travail; and withal Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague Hath swooped upon our city emptying The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.”

“I have sent Menoeceus’ son, Creon, my consort’s brother, to inquire Of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine, How I might save the State by act or word.”

“E’en intolerable ills, Finding right issue, tend to naught but good.”

“Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself, Shall I expel this poison in the blood; For whoso slew that king might have a mind To strike me too with his assassin hand.”

“May the god who sent this oracle Save us withal and rid us of this pest.”

“Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness!”

“No living man can hope To force the gods to speak against their will.”

“Words scare not him who blenches not at deeds.”

“Alas, alas, what misery to be wise When wisdom profits nothing!”

“I am not so infatuate as to grasp The shadow when I hold the substance fast.”

“This day shall be thy birth-day, and thy grave.”

“I seemed forsooth too simple to perceive The serpent stealing on me in the dark.”

“Thus then I answer: since thou hast not spared To twit me with my blindness—thou hast eyes, Yet see’st not in what misery thou art fallen.”

“Crave not mastery in all, For the mastery that raised thee was thy bane and wrought thy fall.”