# Quote — Sophocles, Antigone

> : 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.

- Author: [Sophocles](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sophocles.md)
- Book: [Antigone](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sophocles/antigone.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sophocles#Antigone) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/sophocles/antigone/and-thou-didst

## More from this book

> Show me the man who keeps his house in hand,
>
> He's fit for public authority.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sophocles/antigone/show-me-the.md)

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sophocles/antigone/i-have-nothing.md)

> Ill-gotten gains work evil.

p. 478 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sophocles/antigone/ill-gotten-gains-work.md)