Hubris calls for nemesis, and in one form or another it's going to get it, not as a punishment from outside but as the completion of a pattern already started.
Interpretation
Hubris leads to consequences, not as external punishment but as a natural outcome of one's actions.
This quote suggests that excessive pride or self-confidence, known as hubris, inevitably calls for a corresponding downfall or reckoning, referred to as nemesis. This consequence is not merely a punishment imposed from outside but rather the result of a cycle initiated by one's own actions and attitudes, indicating that individuals must be aware of the potential repercussions of their behavior.
In practice
During a lecture on ethics, this quote illustrates the dangers of excessive pride.
When some portion of the biosphere is rather unpopular with the human race-a crocodile, a dandelion, a stony valley, a snowstorm, an odd-shaped flint-there are three sorts of human being who are particularly likely still to see point in it and befriend it. They are poets, scientists and children. Inside each of us, I suggest, representatives of all these groups can be found.
Evolution is the creation-myth of our age. By telling us our origin it shapes our views of what we are. It influences not just our thought, but our feelings and actions too, in a way which goes far beyond its official function as a biological theory.
In here, the human bosom -- mine, yours, everybody's -- there isn't just one soul. There's a lot of souls. But there are two main ones, the real soul and a pretender soul. Now! Every man realizes that he has to love something or somebody. He feels that he must go outward. 'If thou canst not love, what art thou?' Are you with me?
If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.
The forgiveness of God is one thing, but the proof that we want that forgiveness is the energy we expend to make amends for the wrong.
I observe the physician with the same diligence as the disease.
Man hath still either toys or care: But hath no root, nor to one place is tied, but ever restless and irregular, about this earth doth run and ride. He knows he hath a home, but scarce knows where; He says it is so far, that he has quite forgot how to go there.
Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual.
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