Quotes from Antigone

Quotations follow the Robert Fagles translation (Penguin Classics, 1984) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   I was born to join in love, not hate — that is my nature.

2. 3

   'Tis not my nature to join in hating, but in loving.

3. 4

   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.

4. 5

   For their life is not of to-day or yesterday, but from all time, and no man knows when they were first put forth.

5. 6

   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.

6. 7

   Great words of prideful men are ever punished with great blows.

7. 8

   That is no city, which belongs to one man.

8. 9

   Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness; and reverence towards the gods must be inviolate.

9. 10

   whomsoever the city may appoint, that man must be obeyed, in little things and great, in just things and unjust.

10. 11

    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.

11. 12

    Nothing so evil as money ever grew to be current among men. This lays cities low, this drives men from their homes.

12. 13

    Nay, we must remember, first, that we were born women, as who should not strive with men.

13. 14

    Self-will, we know, incurs the charge of folly.

14. 15

    Hope, whose wanderings are so wide, is to many men a comfort, but to many a false lure of giddy desires.