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Alas, how dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there's no help in truth!

Φεῦ φεῦ, φρονεῖν ὡς δεινὸν ἔνθα μὴ τέλη
λύῃ φρονοῦντι...

Original text (Ancient Greek)

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Variants

Wisdom is a curse when wisdom does nothing for the man who has it.

Topics

Knowledge

More quotes by Sophocles

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.

All Sophocles quotes →

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Attribution

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.