quotations about necessity
Necessity is the mistress and guardian of Nature.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Notebooks
The art of our necessities is strange,
That can make vile things precious.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Lear
Necessity knows no law except to conquer.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
Moral Sayings
Necessity has no law.
FRANÇOIS RABELAIS
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Most of us do not have incomes large enough to provide both the things we need and the things we want. We are forced to choose between our necessities and our luxuries. And, very foolishly, we choose to offer up the luxuries. Thus our existence becomes dull and monotonous. We can hardly be said really to live: our lives are lived for us--cut out and sewed together by the habits and customs of the class to which we belong.
BRUCE FAIRCHILD BARTON
More Power to You
Nothing is necessitated whose opposite is possible.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ
Discours de métaphysique
Necessity turns lion into fox.
PERSIAN PROVERB
Necessity is the law of time and place.
ANONYMOUS
The Dictionary of Legal Quotations
Necessity can make even cowards valiant.
JOSEPH HALL
Contemplations on the Old Testament
The law of necessity dispenses with things which otherwise are not lawful to be done.
ANONYMOUS
The Dictionary of Legal Quotations
A man can no more justly make use of another's necessity to force him to become his vassal by withholding that relief God requires him to afford to the wants of his brother, than he that has more strength can seize upon a weaker, master him to his obedience, and with a dagger at his throat, offer him death or slavery.
JOHN LOCKE
Two Treatises of Government
Man cannot be free if he does not know that he is subject to necessity, because his freedom is always won in his never wholly successful attempts to liberate himself from necessity.
HANNAH ARENDT
The Human Condition
Sheer necessity -- the proper parent of an art so nearly allied to invention.
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN
The Critic
Oh! marvellous, O stupendous Necessity -- by thy laws thou dost compel every effect to be the direct result of its cause, by the shortest path. These are miracles.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Notebooks
Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary necessities ... are the greatest cozenage that men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules by.
OLIVER CROMWELL
speech to Parliament, September 12, 1654
We cannot conquer fate and necessity, yet we can yield to them in such a manner as to be greater than if we could.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
To feel that everything is a necessity is a warning sign that you may be avoiding an uncomfortable reality. The truth is that your necessities are covered, for the most part.
HOLIDAY MATHIS
"Horoscopes by Holiday", Bismarck Tribune, July 27, 2017
Necessity of action takes away the fear of the act, and makes bold resolution the favorite of fortune.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Enchiridion
Necessity imposes law, but does not herself receive it.
PUBLIUS SYRUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
As for "necessity" not based on reason but on pleasure, he declared that it was a sign of a spirit that was extinguished.
THOMAS OF CELANO
The Life of Saint Francis