The fascinating world of Antigone quotes! Here you will find a collection of insightful and thought-provoking quotes from Sophocles’ classic tragedy, Antigone. These quotes will help you gain a better understanding of the story, its characters, and its themes. They will also give you insight into the timeless struggle between state and individual, law and justice, and family and loyalty. So dive in and explore the wisdom of Antigone.
Famous ‘Antigone’ Quotes
#️⃣ “It is the dead, not the living, who make the longest demands.”
“I have no love for a friend who loves in words alone.”
#️⃣ “We have only a little time to please the living. But all eternity to love the dead.”
#️⃣ “Nobody likes the man who brings bad news.”
#️⃣ “You are always defying the world, but you’re only a girl, after all.”
#️⃣ “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.”
#️⃣ “Our ship of fate, which recent storms have threatened to destroy, has come safely to harbor at last.”
#️⃣ “Evil sometimes seems good to a man whose mind a god leads to destruction.”
#️⃣ “All men are liable to error. But when an error is made, that man is no longer unwise or unblessed who heals the evil into which he has fallen and does not remain stubborn.”
#️⃣ “We are of the tribe that hates your filthy hope, your docile, female hope.”
Antigone’ Quotes About Justice
#️⃣ “Those who have survived… won’t remember who was who or which was which.”
“A State for one man is no State at all.”
#️⃣ “I’m simply powerless to act against this city’s law.”
#️⃣ “Isn’t a man’s right to burial decreed by divine justice? I don’t consider your pronouncements so important that they can just overrule the unwritten laws of heaven.”
#️⃣ “Dear god, shout it from the rooftops. I’ll hate you all the more for silence—tell the world!”
#️⃣ “These signs portend evil for Thebes; and the trouble stems from your policy. Why? Because our altars are polluted by flesh brought be dogs and birds, picking from Polynices’ corpse. Small wonder that the gods won’t accept our sacrifices.”
#️⃣ “Yea, for these laws were not ordained of Zeus, And she who sits enthroned with gods below, Justice, enacted not these human laws. Nor did I deem that thou, a mortal man, Could’st by a breath annul and override The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven.”
#️⃣ “Show me the man who keeps his house in hand, he’s fit for public authority.”
Antigone Quotes About Death
#️⃣ “The king was shattered. We took his orders, went and searched, and there in the deepest, dark recesses of the tomb we found her…”
#️⃣ “Your death is the doing of your own conscious hand.”
#️⃣ “I didn’t say yes. I can say no to anything I say vile, and I don’t have to count the cost. But because you said yes, all that you can do, for all your crown and your trappings, and your guards—all that your can do is to have me killed.”
“For death is gain to him whose life, like mine, is full of misery.”
#️⃣ “I will bury him myself.”
#️⃣ “Say I am mad and give my madness rein To wreck itself; the worst that can befall Is but to die an honorable death.”
#️⃣ “I am not afraid of the danger; if it means death. It will not be the worst of deaths – death without honor.”
#️⃣ “For whoso lives, as I, in many woes, how can it be but death shall bring him gain?”
#️⃣ “Not many days and your house will be full of men and women weeping, and curses will be hurled at you from far cities grieving for sons unburied, left to rot before the walls of Thebes.”
#️⃣ “And even if I die in the act, that death will be a glory. I will lie with the one I love and loved by him.”
Antigone’ Quotes About Pride
#️⃣ “If Haemon reaches the point where he stops growing pale with fear when I grow pale, stops thinking that I must have been killed in an accident when I am five minutes late, stops feeling that he is alone on earth when I laugh and he doesn’t know why—if he too has to learn to say yes to everything—why, no, then, no! I do not love Haemon!”
#️⃣ “She has much to learn. The inflexible heart breaks first, the toughest iron cracks first, and the wildest horses bend their necks and pull at the smallest curb.”
#️⃣ “Like father, like daughter, passionate, wild… she hasn’t learned to bend before adversity.”
#️⃣ “My nails are broken, my fingers are bleeding, my arms are covered with the welts left by the paws of your guards—but I am a queen!”
#️⃣ “The girl was an old hand at insolence when she overrode the edicts we made public. But once she had done it—the insolence, twice over—to glory in it laughing, mocking us to our face with what she’d done.”
Antigone’ Quotes About Family
#️⃣ “I intend to give my brother burial. I’ll be glad to die in the attempt. If it’s a crime, then it’s a crime that God commands.”
#️⃣ “Oh let him come! Many other men have rebellious children, quick tempers, too… but they listen to reason, they relent the worst rage in their natures charmed away by the soothing spells of loved ones.”
“No man shall say that I betrayed a brother.”
#️⃣ “I was born to join in love, not hate – that is my nature.”
#️⃣ “What’s that? O god! Do I really hear you sobbing? – my two children.”
#️⃣ “Creon, you’ve pitied me? Sent my darling girls, my own flesh and blood! Am I right?”
#️⃣ “No youths have sung the marriage song for me, My bridal bed No maids have strewn with flowers from the lea, ‘Tis Death I wed.”
#️⃣ “But my two daughters, my two helpless girls, clustering at our table, never without me hovering near them… whatever I touched, they always had their share. Take care of them, I beg you.”
#️⃣ “Now you can prove what you are: A true sister, or a traitor to your family.”
Antigone Quotes about Pain and Learning
#️⃣ “Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “When I have tried and failed, I shall have failed.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Leave me to my own absurdity.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “True, as unwisdom is the worst of ills.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Tell me the news, again, whatever it is… sorrow and I are hardly strangers. I can bear the worst.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “When misfortune comes, the wisest even lose their mother wit.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Great words of prideful men are ever punished with great blows, and, in old age, teach the chastened to be wise.” – Sophocles, Antigone
Antigone Quotes about Love and Friendship
#️⃣ “A friend in word is never friend of mine.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Go then if you must, but remember, no matter how foolish your deeds, those who love you will love you still.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “I was born to join in love, not hate – that is my nature.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “I have no love for a friend who loves in words alone.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Love resistless in fight, all yield at a glance of thine eye.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “I have been a stranger here in my own land: All my life.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Oh it’s terrible when the one who does the judging judges things all wrong.” – Sophocles, Antigon
#️⃣ “Know’st not whate’er we do is done in love?” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Numberless are the world’s wonders, but none more wonderful than man.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “A city which belongs to just one man is no true city.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law.” – Sophocles, Antigone
“There’s nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “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.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “I didn’t say yes. I can say no to anything I say vile, and I don’t have to count the cost. But because you said yes, all that you can do, for all your crown and your trappings, and your guards—all that you can do is to have me killed.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “The dead clay makes no protest.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “The blind man cannot move without a guide.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “What a splendid king you’d make of a desert island – you and you alone.” – Sophocles, Antigone
Antigone Quotes about Hope and Wisdom
#️⃣ “Tomorrow is tomorrow. Future cares have future cures, And we must mind today.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “There is no greater evil than men’s failure to consult and to consider.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “There is no happiness where there is no wisdom…” – Sophocles, Antigone
“Reason is God’s crowning gift to a man…” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “My nails are broken, my fingers are bleeding, my arms are covered with the welts left by the paws of your guards—but I am a queen!” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “That will come when it comes; we must deal with all that lies before us. The future rests with the ones who tend the future.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “But if I am young, thou shouldest look to my merits, not to my years.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Chastisement for errors past, wisdom brings to age at last.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Good advice, if there’s any good in suffering. Quickest is best when trouble blocks the way.” – Sophocles, Antigone
#️⃣ “Of happiness, the chiefest part is a wise heart.” – Sophocles, Antigone
Conclusion
The Antigone quotes from are timeless and serve as a reminder of the power of the human spirit to face adversity and stand up for what is right. The words of Antigone serve to inspire us to stay true to our convictions, no matter the cost, and to never forget the importance of loyalty, justice, and strength of character in our lives.