Silence is an ornament for women.
SophoclesRead
A fool cannot be an actor, though an actor may act a fool's part.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the distinction between true foolishness and the act of pretending to be foolish.
Sophocles suggests that true fools lack the understanding and insight required to be an effective actor, suggesting that genuine foolishness is a state of being that impedes one's ability to engage in the art of acting. Conversely, a skilled actor can play the role of a fool without being foolish themselves, emphasizing the difference between performance and reality, as well as the deeper intelligence that comes with understanding different roles in life.
In practice
In a drama class, to illustrate the nuances of acting, one might quote this saying.
Silence is an ornament for women.
None love the messenger who brings bad news.
All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.
Not even Ares battles against necessity.
You clearly hate to yield, but you will regret it when your anger has passed. Such natures are justly the hardest for themselves to bear.
There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.
The man who forgets does not forgive, he only loses the remembrance; forgiveness is the offspring of a noble heart, of a generous mind, whilst forgetfulness is only the result of a weak memory, or of an easy carelessness.
Playing as children means playing is the most serious thing in the world.
The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience.
When we die, as when the scenes have been fixed on to celluloid and the scenery is pulled down and burnt β we are phantoms in the memories of our descendants. Then we are ghosts, my dear, then we are myths. But still we are together. We are the past together, we are a distant past. Beneath the dome of the mysterious stars, I still hear your voice.
It stands to reason that if sacrifices are being given, somebody is collecting sacrifices.
The only reality we can ever truly know is that of our perceptions, our own consciousness, while that consciousness, and thus our entire reality, is made of nothing but signs and symbols. Nothing but language. Even God requires language before conceiving the Universe. See Genesis: βIn the beginning was the Word.
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