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necessity quotes

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“Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different things.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense
“We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can’t do without.” Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
“Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics
“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Aesop, Aesop's Fables
“A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
“Hence it is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
“It was one of the queer things of life that you saw a person every day for months and were so intimate with him that you could not imagine existence without him; then separation came, and everything went on in the same way, and the companion who...” W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
“men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
“Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.” Louisa May Alcott, Little Men
“One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'the Unnecessary War'.” Winston Churchill, The Second World War
“Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless and diseased, which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are entirely unknown.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden
“In times of crisis people are generally blind to everything outside their immediate necessities.” Albert Einstein, The world as I see it
“Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and the inventress, the eternal curb and law of nature.” Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci
“Nature does not work with an end in view. For the eternal and infinite Being, which we call God or Nature, acts by the same necessity as that whereby it exists.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics
“Chance and chance alone has a message for us. Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out, is mute. Only chance can speak to us.” Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.” Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
“In everything on this earth that is worth doing, there is a stage when no one would do it, except for necessity or honor.” G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World
“Some truths did not bear saying, and some lies were necessary.” George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.” Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island
“There will never be a system invented which will do away with the necessity of work.” Henry Ford, My Life and Work
“The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity, something that he not only wanted but felt that he had a right to.” George Orwell, 1984
“When I made the drawing of the baobabs I was carried beyond myself by the inspiring force of urgent necessity.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
“So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, the tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.” John Milton, Paradise Lost
“you mustn't believe in killing . . . You must do it as a necessity but you must not believe in it. If you believe in it the whole thing is wrong.” Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

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luxury nature evil right need blindness freedom invention teaching law oppression truth work God lies speech money war desire action

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Baruch Spinoza (2)
Niccolò Machiavelli (2)
W. Somerset Maugham (1)
Albert Einstein (1)
Thomas Paine (1)
Jerome K. Jerome (1)
Jules Verne (1)
George Orwell (1)
Henry David Thoreau (1)
Rainer Maria Rilke (1)
George R. R. Martin (1)
Henry Ford (1)
Orson Scott Card (1)
Ernest Hemingway (1)
Winston Churchill (1)
Milan Kundera (1)
Leonardo da Vinci (1)
John Milton (1)
Aesop (1)
Louisa May Alcott (1)

Related sources

The Prince (2)
Ethics (2)
Of Human Bondage (1)
Common Sense (1)
1984 (1)
Letters to a Young Poet (1)
The world as I see it (1)
Walden (1)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1)
Paradise Lost (1)
A Game of Thrones (1)
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1)
The Little Prince (1)
My Life and Work (1)
Little Men (1)
The Mysterious Island (1)
Three Men in a Boat (1)
The Second World War (1)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1)
Aesop's Fables (1)