ADMETUS: For they loved me in words, not deeds.

[ἌΔΜΗΤΟΣ: λόγῳ γὰρ ἦσαν οὐκ ἔργῳ φίλοι.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist

Alcestis [Ἄλκηστις ], l. 339ff (438 BC) [tr. Aldington (1930)]
    (Source)

Speaking of his parents, who have refused to die in his stead, leaving it to his beloved wife, Alcestis, to do so.

(Source (Greek)). Other translations:

For their words
Alone were friendly, not their deeds.
[tr. Potter (1781)]

For they in empty words, and not in deeds,
Have been my friends.
[tr. Wodhull (1782)]

For they were in word, not in deed, my friends.
[tr. Buckley (1858)]

In words not deeds my friends!
[tr. HBL (1884), l. 350]

For they in words were friendly, not in deeds.
[tr. Cudworth (1888)]

For they were friends in word but not in deed.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

For in word only, not in deed, they loved me.
[tr. Way (1894), l. 339]

For they were loving only in their talk.
[tr. Beloit College (1908)]

They brought the words of love but not the deed.
[tr. Murray (1915)]

Friends in words, but enemies in deed.
[tr. Fitts/Fitzgerald (1936)]

They say that they love me, and they will do nothing.
[tr. Vellacott (1953)]

For their love was in word, not deed.
[tr. Kovacs (1994)]

Theirs was a love that lived in words, not actions.
[tr. Davie (1996)]

For they were dear to me in words but not deeds.
[tr. Rabinowitz (1999)]

Who loved me only with words but not with deeds.
[tr. Theodoridis (2008)]

They were friends in word, never in deed.
[tr. Luschnig / Luschnig (2019)]