Silence is an ornament for women.
SophoclesRead
Time alone reveals the just man; but you might discern a bad man in a single day.
Interpretation
It takes time to truly understand a person's character, while negative traits can be spotted quickly.
This quote by Sophocles suggests that the true nature of a person, particularly that of a just man, becomes evident only through the passage of time and their consistent actions over that time. Conversely, negative characteristics or the essence of a 'bad man' can often be identified quickly, implying the complexity of goodness versus the straightforwardness of wrongdoing.
In practice
In a discussion about ethics, you might say, 'As Sophocles noted, time alone reveals the just man.'
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 price paid for intellectual pacification is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind.
The real history of consciousness starts with one's first lie.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
Everything in our background has prepared us to know and resist a prison when the gates begin to close around us . . . But what if there are no cries of anguish to be heard? Who is prepared to take arms against a sea of amusements? To whom do we complain, and when, and in what tone of voice, when serious discourse dissolves into giggles? What is the antidote to a culture's being drained by laughter?
I have absolutely no fear of death. From my near-death research and my personal experiences, death is, in my judgment, simply a transition into another kind of reality.
My future is in my past and my past is my present. I must now make the present my future.
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