“I hold that mortal foolish who strives against the stress of necessity.”

Pittacus, 4.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 1: The Seven Sages

Of those whom God is slow to punish
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

"The Painted Skin" from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1740), as translated by John Minford in Strange tales from a Chinese studio (2006), p. 521

Global Ideas from Pluto's Challenger (May 21, 2009)

Source: Brave New World Revisited

Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 89
Context: The God Spinoza revered is my God, too: I meet Him everyday in the harmonious laws which govern the universe. My religion is cosmic, and my God is too universal to concern himself with the intentions of every human being. I do not accept a religion of fear; My God will not hold me responsible for the actions that necessity imposes. My God speaks to me through laws.

Quoted by Plato in the dialogue Protagoras, 345d http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0177%3Atext%3DProt.%3Asection%3D345d (Simonides Fr. 37.1.27 ff.).
Variant translations:
The gods do not fight against necessity.
Not even the gods war against necessity.
I praise and love all men who do no sin willingly; but with necessity even the gods do not contend.

Source: The Song of Achilles

To Leon Goldensohn, June 4, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004.
"The Nuremberg Interviews"