Original text (Ancient Greek)
It is no weakness for the wisest man
To learn when he is wrong.
A prudent mind can see room for misgiving, lest he who prospers should one day suffer reverse.
When the mind hath once become a parent of evil, it teaches men to be evil thenceforth.
I well believe it, to unwilling ears;None love the messenger who brings bad news.
Evil seems good, soon or late, to him whose mind the god draws to mischief.
To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
There are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence.
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Sophocles (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.