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Necessity is stronger far than art.
Author: Aeschylus
Source: Prometheus Chained (l. 513)
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Thanne is it wysdom, as thynketh me,
To maken vertu of necessite,
And take it weel, that we may not eschu,
And namely that that to us alle is due.
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
Source: The Canterbury Tales (l. 2,182), The Knight's Tale
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Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary
necessities, are the greatest cozenage men can put upon the
Providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules by.
Author: Oliver Cromwell
Source: Speeches--To Parliament
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It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or
whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know
it myself.
Author: Oliver Cromwell
Source: Speeches--To Parliament
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It is necessity and not pleasure that compels us.
[It., Necessita c'induce, e non diletto.]
Author: Dante ("Dante Alighieri")
Source: Inferno (XII, 87)
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The graveyards are full of indispensable men.
Author: Dante ("Dante Alighieri")
Source: Inferno (XII, 87)
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Art imitates nature, and necessity is the mother of invention.
Author: Richard Franck
Source: Northern Memoirs (p. 52)
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To make necessity a virtue (a virtue of necessity).
[Lat., Necessitatem in virtutem commutarum.]
Author: Hadrianus Julius
Source: Addition to Adages of Erasmus
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Necessity takes impartially the highest and the lowest.
[Lat., Aequa lege necessitas
Sortitur insignes et imos.]
Author: Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Source: Carmina (III, 1, 14)
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Necessity is the last and strongest weapon.
[Lat., Necessitas ultimum et maximum telum est.]
Author: Titus Livy
Source: Annales (IV, 28)
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Learn on how little man may live, and how small a portion nature
requires.
[Lat., Discite quam parvo liceat producere vitam,
Et quantum natura petat.]
Author: Lucanus (Marcus Annaeus Lucan)
Source: Pharsalia (IV, 377)
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So spake the Fiend, and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deed.
Author: John Milton
Source: Paradise Lost (bk. IV, l. 393)
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Necessity is a violent school-mistress.
[Fr., C'est une violente maistresse d'eschole que la necessite.]
Author: Michael Eyquen de Montaigne
Source: Essays (bk. I, 47)
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My steps have pressed the flowers,
That to the Muses' bowers
The eternal dews of Helicon have given:
And trod the mountain height,
Where Science, young and bright,
Scans with poetic gaze the midnight-heaven.
Yet have I found no power to vie
With thine, severe necessity!
Author: Thomas Love Peacock
Source: Necessity
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Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Author: William Pitt, Earl of Chatham
Source: Speeches--The India Bill
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He who would eat the kernel, must crack the shell.
[Lat., Qui e nuce nucleum esse vult, frangat nucem.]
Author: Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus)
Source: Curculio (I, 1, 55)
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Necessity when threatening is more powerful than device of man.
[Lat., Efficacior omni arte imminens necessitas.]
Author: Quintus Curtius Rufus (Curtis Rufus Quintus)
Source: De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni (IV, 3, 23)
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Necessity makes even the timid brave.
[Lat., Necessitas etiam timidos fortes facit.]
Author: Sallust (Caius Sallustius Crispus)
Source: Catilina (58)
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Stern is the visage of necessity.
[Ger., Ernst ist der Anblick der Nothwendigkeit.]
Author: Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
Source: Wallenstein's Tod (I, 4, 45)
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It is in these useless and superfluous things that I am rich and
happy.
Author: Scopas
Source: in Plutarch's "Life of Cato"
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Necessity--thou best of peacemakers,
As well as surest prompter of invention.
Author: Sir Walter Scott
Source: Peveril of the Peak (heading of ch. XXVI)
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It is bad to live for necessity; but there is no necessity to
live in necessity.
[Lat., Malum est necessitati vivere; sed in necessitate vivere
necessitas nulla est.]
Author: Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)
Source: Epistles (58)
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Omission to do what is necessary
Seals a commission to a blank of danger;
And danger, like an ague, subtly taints
Even then when we sit idly in the sun.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The History of Troilus and Cressida (Patroclus at III, iii)
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Now we sit close about this taper here
And call in question our necessities.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Julius Caesar (Brutus at IV, iii)
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No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the emnity o' th' air,
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,
Necessity's sharp pinch.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: King Lear (King Lear at II, iv)
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By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source: None
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Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of the two everlasting empires, necessity and free will.
Author: Thomas Carlyle
Source: None
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Necessity never made a good bargain.
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Source: None
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Necessity is the mother of invention, it is true -- but it's father is creativity, and knowledge is the midwife.
Author: Jonathan Schattke
Source: None
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It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to.
Author: Walter Linn
Source: None
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An extravagance is something that your spirit thinks is a necessity.
Author: Bern Williams
Source: None
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Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.
Author: Euripides
Source: None
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Men try to run life according to their wishes; life runs itself according to necessity.
Author: Jean Toomer
Source: None
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If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.
Author: Georg C. Lichtenberg
Source: None
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Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.
Author: Roger von Oech
Source: None
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I don't think necessity is the mother of invention -- invention . . . arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.
Author: Agatha Christie
Source: None
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Necessity dispenseth with decorum.
Author: Thomas Fuller, M. D.
Source: None
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The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: None
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It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to.
Author: Walter Linn
Source: None
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Make yourself necessary to somebody.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source: None
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Necessity is the mother of invention.
Author: Jonathan Swift
Source: None
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Our necessities are few but our wants are endless.
Author: Josh Billings
Source: None
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Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Author: William Pitt
Source: None
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Necessity knows no law except to conquer.
Author: Publilius Syrus
Source: None
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The chalice is ephemeral.
Jesus' blood eternal.
Author: Saiom Shriver
Source: None
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We do what we must, and call it by the best names.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source: None
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Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.
Author: Karl Marx
Source: None
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Without death and decay, how could life go on?
Author: John Burroughs
Source: None
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Necessity has no law.
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Source: None
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