QuoteProject
Not even Ares battles against necessity.
Sophocles
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Even the mightiest cannot fight against the forces of fate or necessity.

This quote suggests that no matter how powerful or skilled an individual may be, there are certain inevitable forces or circumstances, referred to as necessity, that cannot be overcome. Sophocles highlights the idea that accepting the limitations imposed by fate is a significant aspect of human existence, reminding us that sometimes resistance is futile.

Themes

NecessityFatePowerAcceptanceInevitability

In practice

Example use cases

In a motivational speech about overcoming struggles, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of accepting what cannot be changed.

More from Sophocles

Silence is an ornament for women.
SophoclesRead
None love the messenger who brings bad news.
SophoclesRead
All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.
SophoclesRead
You clearly hate to yield, but you will regret it when your anger has passed. Such natures are justly the hardest for themselves to bear.
SophoclesRead
There is nothing more hateful than bad advice.
SophoclesRead
It is no weakness for the wisest man to learn when he is wrong.
SophoclesRead

Similar quotes

We don't attach to people or to things; we attach to uninvestigated concepts that we believe to be true in the moment.
Byron KatieRead
By ceasing to rear and kill animals for food, we can make so much extra food available for humans that, properly distributed, it would eliminate starvation and malnutrition from this planet. Animal Liberation is Human Liberation too.
Peter SingerRead
So many indigenous people have said to me that the fundamental difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that even the most open-minded westerners generally view listening to the natural world as a metaphor, as opposed to the way the world really is. Trees and rocks and rivers really do have things to say to us.
Derrick JensenRead
Either we must speak as we dress, or dress as we speak. Why do we profess one thing and display another? The tongue talks of chastity, but the whole body reveals impurity.
St. JeromeRead
There is my father whispering in my ear, Be still still still. And yet you change everything. What was the marsh like, waiting for the storm before you came and kneeled in the water? It was nothing. Watch after you leave the water, now cold and regretful, miles from home, certain of the belt on your backside, the cold shoulder, the extra chores; watch. Watch the water heal itself of your presence--not to repair injury but to offer itself again should you care to risk another strapping [...].
Paul HardingRead
Let there be nothing within thee that is not very beautiful and very gentle, and there will be nothing without thee that is not beautiful and softened by the spell of thy presence.
James AllenRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.