Antigone Quotes

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  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

  Mistake, Character, Pride

  Sophocles (1977). “The Oedipus Cycle: An English Version”, Harcourt

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• The ideal condition would be, I admit, that men should be right by instinct; but since we are all likely to go astray, The reasonable thing is to learn from those who can teach

  Sophocles

  Learning, Men, Intuition

  Sophocles (1977). “The Oedipus Cycle: An English Version”, Harcourt

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• Go then if you must, but remember, no matter how foolish your deeds, those who love you will love you still.

  Sophocles

  Life, Love You, Deeds

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• Numberless are the world's wonders, but none More wonderful than man.

  Sophocles

  Men, World, Wonder

  Sophocles (1977). “The Oedipus Cycle: An English Version”, Harcourt

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• 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.

  Sophocles

  Wise, Men, Submission To God

  Sophocles (1939). “The Antigone of Sophocles: An English Version by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald”

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• There is no happiness where there is no wisdom.

  Sophocles

  Wisdom

  Sophocles (1939). “The Antigone of Sophocles: An English Version by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald”

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

  Sophocles

  Men, Hands, House

  Sophocles (2013). “Sophocles: The Theban Plays”, p.252, Routledge

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• Grief teaches the steadiest minds to waver.

  Sophocles

  Grief, Grieving, Mind

  Sophocles (1939). “The Antigone of Sophocles: An English Version by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald”

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• Money: There's nothing in the world so demoralizing as money.

  Sophocles

  Money, World, Demoralizing

  Sophocles (1977). “The Oedipus Cycle: An English Version”, Harcourt

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• A man though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind.

  Sophocles

  Inspirational, Education, Wise

  David Grene, Sophocles (1959). “Sophocles”, [Chicago] : University of Chicago Press

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• Do not believe that you alone can be right.The man who thinks that,The man who maintains that only he has the powerTo reason correctly, the gift to speak, the soul-A man like that, when you know him, turns out empty.

  Sophocles

  Believe, Men, Thinking

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• 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.

  Sophocles

  Love, Girl, Night

  Sophocles (1977). “The Oedipus Cycle: An English Version”, Harcourt

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• Reason is God's crowning gift to man.

  Sophocles

  God, Men, Reason

  Sophocles (1939). “The Antigone of Sophocles: An English Version by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald”

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• We have only a little time to please the living. But all eternity to love the dead.

  Sophocles

  Littles, Eternity, Please

  Sophocles (1955). “The Theban Plays: King Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus [and] Antigone”

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• How dreadful it is when the right judge judges wrong!

  Sophocles

  Judging, Judgement, Prison

  Antigone (c. 442 b.c.).

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• It's terrible when the one who does the judging judges things all wrong.

  Sophocles

  Judging, Doe, Terrible

  Sophocles (1984). “The Three Theban Plays: Antigone; Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus”, p.54, Penguin

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• Miss Havisham is an important feminine literary figure in the tradition of Antigone (though it's significant that Antigone is fighting to bury something and Miss Havisham refuses, as it were, to bury the corpse). Like Hamlet, she's focused on what everyone would rather not know or would like to forget, and she seems crazy / stuck as well as bitter, but she's also a perfect prototype of a performance artist. She's intentionally hard to deal with inviting the audience to remain with the violated body, the evidence of violence.

  Laura Mullen

  Crazy, Fighting, Artist

  Source: therumpus.net

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• The problem with Antigone is that she stood up to the despot Creon, but in such a way that she ended up dying. So she bought her defiance with her death. The real question I ended up asking was, "What would it mean for Antigone to have stood up to Creon and lived?" And the only way she could have lived is if she had had a serious social movement with her. If she arrived with a social movement to take down the despot, maybe it would have taken 18 days only, like in Egypt. It's really important to be able to re-situate one's rage and destitution in the context of a social movement.

  Judith Butler

  Real, Taken, Mean

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• What does it mean to be a used white wife, a mother, a tragic girl writing poems? Sandra Simonds gets into these messy words and then tears them apart. Sometimes with the words of others. And sometimes with poems made from scratch. They aren't all bad, these words. But they aren't all good either. And that is where Mother was a Tragic Girl gets its power. You will at moments be laughing but then you will also at moments just as much be crying. If Antigone was alive and decided to write some poems about the nuclear family, she would write them like Sandra Simonds. These are tough.

  Juliana Spahr

  Girl, Mother, Writing

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• The Greeks had considered hope the final evil in Pandora's box. They also gave us an image of perfect nobility: a human being lovingly doing her duty to another human being despite all threats, and going to her death with pride and courage, not deterred by any hope - Antigone.

  Walter Kaufmann

  Pride, Evil, Perfect

  Walter Kaufmann (1977). “The Future of the Humanities”, p.23, Transaction Publishers

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• I am not a playwright. A playwright would take "Antigone" and hit it a few clouts and knock it out of shape and restructure it. My versioning was strictly verbal.

  Seamus Heaney

  Shapes, Clout, Playwright

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Don't let anyone tell you that the truth can't disappear. If I believe in anything, rather than God, is that I am part of something that goes all the way back to Antigone, and that whatever speaks the truth of our hearts can only make us stronger. Can only give us the power to counter the hate and bigotry and heal this addled world. Just remember: You are not alone.

  Paul Monette

  Hate, Believe, Heart

  Paul Monette (2014). “Last Watch of the Night: Essays Too Personal and Otherwise”, p.91, Open Road Media

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