"If one begins all deeds well, it is likely that they will end well too"
About this Quote
Sophocles is selling a deceptively comforting idea: beginnings carry moral and practical momentum. Start right and the ending tends to follow. But coming from the dramatist who made audiences watch good intentions get pulverized by fate, the line reads less like a motivational poster and more like a civic warning with teeth.
In Greek tragedy, “deeds” aren’t private lifestyle choices; they’re public acts with consequences that ricochet across family, city, and gods. To “begin well” is to act with proper measure: respect for ritual, restraint in power, attention to what you owe other people. That opening posture matters because tragedy is obsessed with the first misstep - a small arrogance, a rushed judgment, a refusal to listen - that sets a whole apparatus in motion. Once you’ve crossed a line, the plot doesn’t pause so you can renegotiate your values.
The subtext is also political. Sophocles wrote for an Athenian audience trained to see character as destiny and governance as an ethical performance. A leader’s first choices establish a pattern others must live inside. Good starts aren’t just efficient; they’re contagious. Bad starts normalize shortcuts, and the city learns the wrong lesson.
Still, the sentence hedges with “likely,” a tiny word doing serious work. Sophocles isn’t denying randomness or the gods’ interference; he’s staking out the narrow space where human agency exists. You can’t guarantee a good end, but you can increase its odds by refusing the corrupting convenience of a sloppy beginning.
In Greek tragedy, “deeds” aren’t private lifestyle choices; they’re public acts with consequences that ricochet across family, city, and gods. To “begin well” is to act with proper measure: respect for ritual, restraint in power, attention to what you owe other people. That opening posture matters because tragedy is obsessed with the first misstep - a small arrogance, a rushed judgment, a refusal to listen - that sets a whole apparatus in motion. Once you’ve crossed a line, the plot doesn’t pause so you can renegotiate your values.
The subtext is also political. Sophocles wrote for an Athenian audience trained to see character as destiny and governance as an ethical performance. A leader’s first choices establish a pattern others must live inside. Good starts aren’t just efficient; they’re contagious. Bad starts normalize shortcuts, and the city learns the wrong lesson.
Still, the sentence hedges with “likely,” a tiny word doing serious work. Sophocles isn’t denying randomness or the gods’ interference; he’s staking out the narrow space where human agency exists. You can’t guarantee a good end, but you can increase its odds by refusing the corrupting convenience of a sloppy beginning.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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