1
If through no fault of his own the hero is crushed by a bulldozer in Act II, we are not impressed. Even though life is often like this–the absconding cashier on his way to Nicaragua is killed in a collision at the airport, the prominent statesman dies of a stroke in the midst of the negotiations he has spent years to bring about, the young lovers are drowned in a boating accident the day before their marriage–such events, the warp and woof of everyday life, seem irrelevant, meaningless. They are crude, undigested, unpurged bits of reality–to draw a metaphor from the late J. Edgar Hoover, they are “raw files.” But it is the function of great art to purge and give meaning to human suffering, and so we expect that if the hero is indeed crushed by a bulldozer in Act II there will be some reason for it, and not just some reason but a good one, one which makes sense in terms of the hero’s personality and action. In fact, we expect to be shown that he is in some way responsible for what happens to him.Bernard Knox
2
It is not in words that I should wish my life to be distinguished, but rather in things done.Sophocles
3
In a just cause the weak will beat the strong!Sophocles
4
Your edict, King, was strong, But all your strength is weakness itself against The immortal unrecorded laws of God.They are not merely now: they were, and shall be, Operative for ever, beyond man utterly. I knew I must die, even without your decree: I am only mortal. And if I must die Now, before it is my time to die, Surely this is no hardship: can anyone Living, as I live, with evil all about me, Think Death less than a friend? .Sophocles
5
Reason is God's crowning gift to man, and you are right To warn me against losing mine. I cannot say– I hope that I shall never want to say! – that you Have reasoned badly. Yet there are other men Who can reason, too; and their opinions might be helpful. You are not in a position to know everything That people say or do, or what they feel: Your temper terrifies them–everyone Will tell you only what you like to hear. .Sophocles