WIST

There will come a day for each of us, more or less sad, more or less distant, when we must accept the condition of being human.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
(Attributed)

CREON: To say yes, you have to sweat and roll up your sleeves and plunge both hands into life up to the elbows. It’s easy to say no, even if it means dying.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Antigone (1942)

CHORUS: It is restful, tragedy, because one knows that there is no more lousy hope left. You know you’re caught, caught at last like a rat with all the world on its back. And the only thing left to do is shout — not moan, or complain, but yell out at the top of your voice whatever it was you had to say. What you’ve never said before. What perhaps you don’t even know till now.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Antigone (1942)

Until the day of his death, no man can be sure of his courage.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Becket ou l’honneur de Dieu [Becket or The Honor of God], Act 1 [Thomas à Becket] (1959)

BECKET: Saintliness is also a temptation.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Becket ou l’honneur de Dieu [Becket or The Honor of God], Act 3 (1959)

LE CHEVALIER: One cannot weep for the entire world, it is beyond human strength. One must choose.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
Cécile (1954)

ARCHBISHOP: With God, what is terrible is that one never knows whether it’s not just a trick of the devil.

Jean Anouilh (1910-1987) French dramatist
The Lark [L'Alouette] (1952)