NECESSITY QUOTES

quotations about necessity

Necessity embitters the evils which it cannot cure.

LUC DE CLAPIERS, MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES

Reflections and Maxims


Necessity dominates inclination, will, and right.

NAPOLEON

attributed, Napoleon: In His Own Words

Tags: Napoleon Bonaparte


Great necessities call out great virtues.

ABIGAIL ADAMS

letter to John Quincy Adams, January 12, 1780

Tags: Abigail Adams


Necessity is a violent school-mistress.

MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE

Essays

Tags: Michel de Montaigne


Necessity is the theme and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Thoughts on Art and Life

Tags: Leonardo da Vinci


Necessity relieves us from the embarrassment of choice.

LUC DE CLAPIERS, MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES

Reflections and Maxims


Where necessity speaks it demands.

RUSSIAN PROVERB

Tags: Russian Proverbs


Necessity is the last and strongest weapon.

LIVY

Annales


Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

WILLIAM PITT

speech, November 18, 1783

Tags: William Pitt


'Tis necessity
To which the gods must yield; and I obey,
Till I redeem it by some glorious way.

JOHN FLETCHER & PHILIP MASSINGER

The False One

Tags: John Fletcher


In the first place, it is not improper to observe, that the law of cases of necessity is not likely to be well furnished with precise rules; necessity creates the law, it supersedes rules; and whatever is reasonable and just in such cases, is likewise legal; it is not to be considered as matter of surprise, therefore, if much instituted rule is not to be found on such subjects.

WILLIAM SCOTT

Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Admiralty, Commencing with the Judgments of the Right Hon. Sir William Scott


Necessity [is the] mother of invention.

WILLIAM WYCHERLEY

Love in a Wood

Tags: William Wycherley


Necessity resides in the way we talk about things, not in the things we talk about.

WILLARD VAN ORMAN QUINE

Ways of Paradox and Other Essays


Necessity knows no rules.

AUGUST STRINDBERG

Miss Julie

Tags: August Strindberg


If necessity is the mother of invention then failure is the father of success.

ANDREW EBORN

"The Failure Awards for defunct branding", The Drum, August 15, 2017


In all the affairs of this world, and more particularly in war, we must often allow our plans to yield to necessity; and not from an over-anxiety to secure what is too difficult or even impossible, expose the whole to a most evident risk; nor is it less the duty of a bold commander to listen to the advice of the cautious than of the daring.

GUICCIARDINI

attributed, Day's Collacon


Hold it wise ...
To make a virtue of necessity.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

"The Knight's Tale", Canterbury Tales

Tags: Geoffrey Chaucer


Necessity never made a good bargain.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Poor Richard's Almanac

Tags: Benjamin Franklin


Necessity moderates more troubles than reason.

LUC DE CLAPIERS, MARQUIS DE VAUVENARGUES

Reflections and Maxims


Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma.

E. B. WHITE

The New Yorker, June 19, 1937

Tags: E. B. White