Until yesterday, I don't recall hearing the word "recalcitrant."

I've been familiar with it for a long time, but I probably have never actually used it in a sentence.

Here is a quote from theologian Reinhold Niebuhr:

Our dreams of bringing the whole of human history under the control of the human will are ironically refuted by the fact that no group of idealists can easily move the pattern of history toward the desired goal of peace and justice. The recalcitrant forces in the historical drama have a power and persistence beyond our reckoning.