[General] What does it mean?

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gilbuvarkey

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I would prefer even to fail with honor.
 

Route21

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Hi

I would prefer to fail with honor. than win by cheating.

Does this help?
 

JMurray

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gilbuvarkey.

The full line from Sophocles helps explain this:
“I would prefer even to fail with honor than to win by cheating”
or alternatively:
"Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud."

He is saying that he would rather act honourably and honestly while trying to achieve something, even if he fails – than to act dishonestly and succeed.

not a teacher

ps: sorry about the repeat, I'll leave it up for the Sophocles bit.
 
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gilbuvarkey

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gilbuvarkey.

The full line from Sophocles helps explain this:
“I would prefer even to fail with honor than to win by cheating”
or alternatively:
"Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud."

He is saying that he would rather act honourably and honestly while trying to achieve something, even if he fails – than to act dishonestly and succeed.

not a teacher

ps: sorry about the repeat, I'll leave it up for the Sophocles bit.

Thank you very much.
 

Rover_KE

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I would prefer even to fail with honor.

Welcome to the board, gilbuvarkey.

In future posts it would be helpful to give your threads meaningful titles and provide some context for your question.

For example, I would prefer even to fail with honor would have been a better title for this question and you could have gone on to say

'What does this mean? I read it in a language book.'

Rover
 

Route21

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Hi JM

Many thanks for the info about Sophocles. It's a very long time since I did Classics "O" level and so didn't immediately recognise the context, although I really should have done.

Best regards
R21
 
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