Thales says that necessity is omnipotent, and that it exerciseth an empire over everything. Pythagoras, that the world is invested by necessity. Parmenides and Democritus, that there is nothing in the world but what is necessary, and that this same necessity is otherwise called fate, justice, providence, and the architect of the world.
Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies · The Wunder Library — complete classics, free to read, with narration.