Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
AristophanesRead
Hunger knows no friend but its feeder.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that hunger or need is a powerful force that can override relationships and loyalty.
In this quote, Aristophanes highlights the idea that when it comes to fulfilling deep-seated needs such as hunger, social bonds and friendships become secondary. It suggests that in times of desperate need, individuals are often compelled to seek help from whoever can provide it, regardless of their previous relationships or affiliations. This speaks to the primal instincts that drive human behavior, emphasizing how fundamental needs can dictate actions and priorities.
Themes
HungerNeedFriendshipPrioritiesRelationships
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing poverty, one might say, 'As Aristophanes observed, hunger knows no friend but its feeder.'
More from Aristophanes
All quotes β[Y]ou [man] are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with [woman=] me, when for your faithful ally you might win me easily.
AristophanesRead
Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
AristophanesRead
Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you.
AristophanesRead
When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
AristophanesRead
These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: Can't live with them, or without them.
AristophanesRead
Similar quotes
The Judge does not make the law. It is people that make the law. Therefore if a law is unjust, and if the Judge judges according to the law, that is justice, even if it is not just.
Alan PatonRead
We look for the Secret - the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir of the Wise, Supreme Enlightenment, 'God' or whatever...and all the time it is carrying us about...It is the human nervous system itself.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
Personal purity isnβt really the issue. Not supporting animal abuse β and persuading others not to support it β is.
Peter SingerRead
If all sentient beings in the universe disappeared, there would remain a sense in which mathematical objects and theorems would continue to exist even though there would be no one around to write or talk about them. Huge prime numbers would continue to be prime, even if no one had proved them prime.
Martin GardnerRead
Some persons seem to like you, and others seem to hate you, and you must wonder why. They are simply liking machines and hating machines.
Kurt VonnegutRead
In the 18th century we knew how everything was done, but here I rise through the air, I listen to voices in America, I see men flying- but how is it done? I can't even begin to wonder. So my belief in magic returns.
Virginia WoolfRead