Antiphon the Sophist Quotes
Antiphon the Sophist was an Athenian sophist and intellectual of the late fifth century BC, traditionally distinguished by modern scholars from his contemporary, the orator Antiphon of Rhamnus. The papyrus fragments of his On Truth, recovered from the sands of Egypt, offer one of the earliest sustained reflections in any tradition on the contrast between law and nature, in which legal obligations are described as the agreements of human beings while the laws of nature compel by necessity. The quotes below are attributed to Antiphon the Sophist, organized by topic.
Antiphon the Sophist on Justice
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Attributed to Antiphon the Sophist:
“Justice is not breaking the rules of one's own city, when other people are watching.”
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Attributed to Antiphon the Sophist:
“He who fears the laws and is without witnesses of his actions is the law-abiding man.”
Antiphon the Sophist on Nature
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Attributed to Antiphon the Sophist:
“By nature we are all alike, Greek and barbarian: we breathe the same air through the mouth and through the nostrils.”
Antiphon the Sophist on Politics
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Attributed to Antiphon the Sophist:
“Law is the agreement of human beings; nature compels by necessity.”
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Attributed to Antiphon the Sophist:
“What men have established by convention they may dissolve by convention; what nature has set down does not yield to convention at all.”