A patterned paper kite tethered to a copper key on a mint-green surface.

Original artwork, not a still

Women of Trachis

Sophocles

Knowledge must come through action; you can have no test which is not fanciful, save by trial.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker argues that knowledge needs action to test it. Without an actual trial, a supposed test remains fanciful. The contrast puts practical experience above imagined results, presenting doing something as the way to find out whether an idea holds up.

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