But all your [Creon’s] strength is weakness itself against
The immortal unrecorded laws of God.
They are not merely now: they were and shall be
Forever, beyond man utterly.

These lines come from Sophocles’ tragedy *Antigone*, spoken in the central conflict between Antigone and King Creon. After Creon forbids burial of Polyneices as a traitor, Antigone defies the edict to perform funeral rites, believing divine obligations outweigh civic commands. In the confrontation, she argues that Creon’s authority is limited and cannot override the gods’ enduring, unwritten laws governing piety and burial. The play, first produced in 5th‑century BCE Athens, uses this clash to probe the limits of political power, the claims of conscience and religion, and the catastrophic consequences of rigid rule.

The passage asserts a hierarchy of law: human decrees, however forceful, are ultimately fragile when set against divine or moral imperatives that are “unrecorded” yet binding. “Immortal” and “forever” emphasize permanence and universality, suggesting that true justice is not created by rulers or written statutes but exists beyond any single regime. Antigone’s claim also frames civil disobedience as fidelity to a higher order, while implicitly condemning Creon’s hubris—his belief that political sovereignty can redefine sacred duties. The tragedy complicates the point by showing that uncompromising certainty on either side can lead to ruin, but the lines remain a classic statement of natural/divine law over state power.