Antigone

Quotes

1. Show me the man who keeps his house in hand,

   He's fit for public authority.

2. 

   I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare — I have no use for him, either.

3. 

   Ill-gotten gains work evil.

   p. 478

4. 

   Henceforth ye may thieve with better knowledge whence lucre should be won, and learn that it is not well to love gain from every source. For thou wilt find that ill-gotten pelf brings more men to ruin than to weal.

5. 

   There is no happiness where there is no wisdom;

   No wisdom but in submission to the gods.

   Big words are always punished,

   And proud men in old age learn to be wise.

6. 

   The ideal condition

   Would be, I admit, that men should be right by instinct;

   But since we are all too likely to go astray,

   The reasonable thing is to learn from those who can teach.

7. 

   It is a good thing

   To escape from death, but it is not great pleasure

   To bring death to a friend.

8. 

   Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.

9. 

   Love, unconquerable,

   Waster of rich men, keeper

   Of warm lights and all-night vigil

   In the soft face of a girl:

   Sea-wanderer, forest-visitor!

   Even the pure immortals cannot escape you,

   And mortal man, in his one day's dusk,

   Trembles before your glory.

   p. 471

10. 

    Evil seems good, soon or late, to him whose mind the god draws to mischief.

11. 

    Our Ship of State, which recent storms have threatened to destroy, has come safely to harbor at last.

12. 

    It is no weakness for the wisest man

    To learn when he is wrong.

13. 

    Think not that thy word, and thine alone, must be right.

    p. 97

14. 

    Numberless are the world's wonders, but none

    More wonderful than man.

    p. 62

15. 

    All men are liable to err; but when an error hath been made, that man is no longer witless or unblest who heals the ill into which he hath fallen, and remains not stubborn.

16. 

    For whoso lives, as I, in many woes,

    How can it be but death shall bring him gain?

    p. 445

17. 

    Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.

18. 

    Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

19. 

    Happy are they who know not the taste of evil.

20. 

    Nothing so evil as money ever grew to be current among men. This lays cities low, this drives men from their homes, this trains and warps honest souls till they set themselves to works of shame; this still teaches folk to practise villainies, and to know every godless deed. But all the men who wrought this thing for hire have made it sure that, soon or late, they shall pay the price.

21. 

    For God hates utterly

    The bray of bragging tongues.

22. 

    ΚΡ. καὶ δῆτ᾿ ἐτόλμας τούσδ᾿ ὑπερβαίνειν νόμους;

    ΑΝ. οὐ γάρ τί μοι Ζεὺς ἦν ὁ κηρύξας τάδε,

    οὐδ᾿ ἡ ξύνοικος τῶν κάτω θεῶν Δίκη

    τοιούσδ᾿ ἐν ἀνθρώποισιν ὥρισεν νόμους,

    οὐδὲ σθένειν τοσοῦτον ᾠόμην τὰ σὰ

    κηρύγμαθ᾿ ὥστ᾿ ἄγραπτα κἀσφαλῆ θεῶν

    νόμιμα δύνασθαι θνητά γ᾿ ὄνθ᾿ ὑπερδραμεῖν.

    οὐ γάρ τι νῦν γε κἀχθές, ἀλλ᾿ ἀεί ποτε

    ζῇ ταῦτα, κοὐδεὶς οἶδεν ἐξ ὅτου ᾿φάνη.

23. 

    : And thou didst indeed dare to transgress that law?

    : Yes; for it was not Zeus that had published me that edict; not such are the laws set among men by the justice who dwells with the gods below; nor deemed I that thy decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override the unwritten and unfailing statutes of heaven. For their life is not of to-day or yesterday, but from all time, and no man knows when they were first put forth.

That’s all the quotes.

23 quotes in the collection · come back when we add more