Oedipus Quotes - Page 2

• It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. He must be like Sophocles' Oedipus, who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God's sake, not to inquire further.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Philosophy, Heart, Fate

  Letter to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, November 1819.

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• I was not interested in doing the plot of Oedipus in blackface. I did wonder, what would these people have been like if they hadn't been in that situation?... One could look at Oedipus, or at my character Augustus, as a cynical schemer who did everything because he was hungry for power. But that's just too easy. I'm more interested in how humans can embody conflicting goals and emotions.

  Rita Dove

  Character, People, Goal

  "The darker face of the earth". American Theatre, November 1, 1996.

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• I got Oedipus off the incest charge--technicality, of course--he didn't know it was his mother at the time.

  Jasper Fforde

  Mother, Courses, Knows

  Jasper Fforde (2004). “The Well of Lost Plots: A Thursday Next Novel”, p.47, Penguin

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