“Even the Gods cannot strive against necessity.”

As quoted by Plato, Protagoras, 345d, and by Diogenes Laërtius, i. 77.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Even the Gods cannot strive against necessity." by Pittacus of Mytilene?
Pittacus of Mytilene photo
Pittacus of Mytilene 11
Greek sage

Related quotes

Diogenes Laërtius photo

“One of his sayings was, "Even the gods cannot strive against necessity."”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

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

Simonides of Ceos photo

“Not even the gods fight against necessity.”

Simonides of Ceos (-556–-468 BC) Ancient Greek musician and poet

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.

Euripidés photo

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

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Hercules Furens l. 281

John Calvin photo
Caitlín R. Kiernan photo

“Art is not science. Even when art is about science, it is still art. There cannot be consensus, in the sense that science strives for meaningful consensus.”

Caitlín R. Kiernan (1964) writer

(15 June 2007)
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2007
Context: Art is not science. Even when art is about science, it is still art. There cannot be consensus, in the sense that science strives for meaningful consensus. And unlike science, art is not progressive. Personally, I have my doubts that science can be said to be genuinely progressive, but I'm pretty dammed certain that art is not. Which is not to say that it is not accumulative or accretionary. But the belief that sf writers are out there forecasting the future, that they have some social responsibility to do so, that's malarky, if you ask me. Writers of sf can only, at best, make educated guesses, and usually those guesses are wrong, and clumping together to form a consensus does not in any way insure against history unfolding in one of those other, unpredicted directions. People love to pick out the occasional instances where Jules Verne and William Gibson got it right; they rarely ever point fingers at their miscalls.

Neil Gaiman photo

“Even the gods cannot change destiny.”

Neil Gaiman (1960) English fantasy writer

Source: Norse Mythology (2017), Chapter 14, “The Death of Balder” (p. 234)

“Even God cannot change the past.”

Agathon (-448–-401 BC) Athenian tragic poet

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI, sect. 2, 1139b.
Variant translation: Not even the gods can change the past.

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“Against boredom even gods struggle in vain.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Gegen die Langeweile kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
Sec. 48
The Antichrist (1888)
Source: The Anti-Christ

“The will of man is unconquerable. Even God cannot conquer it.”

Source: Under the Volcano (1947), Ch. III (*p. 97)

Related topics