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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
“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
“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
“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
“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Aesop, Aesop's Fables
“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
“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
“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
“Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.” Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island
“So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, the tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.” John Milton, Paradise Lost
“There will never be a system invented which will do away with the necessity of work.” Henry Ford, My Life and Work
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“In times of crisis people are generally blind to everything outside their immediate necessities.” Albert Einstein, The world as I see it
“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
“Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.” Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game
“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
“Some truths did not bear saying, and some lies were necessary.” George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“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

Related topics

expedience nature evil luxury law invention oppression art freedom work truth God action money war desire teaching existence speech blindness

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

Related sources

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