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Necessity quotes

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“A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity.” Rainer Maria Rilke, “Letters to a Young Poet” - 1929

“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” - 1478 – 1519

“Necessity is the mother of invention.” Aesop, “Aesop's Fables”

“Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.” Orson Scott Card, “Ender's Game” - 1985

“Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.” Jules Verne, “The Mysterious Island” - 1874

“Some truths did not bear saying, and some lies were necessary.” George R. R. Martin, “A Game of Thrones” - 1996

“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” - 1910

“In times of crisis people are generally blind to everything outside their immediate necessities.” Albert Einstein, “The world as I see it” - 1949

“Immediate necessity makes many things convenient, which if continued would grow into oppressions. Expedience and right are different things.” Thomas Paine, “Common Sense” - 1776

“So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, the tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.” John Milton, “Paradise Lost” - 1667

“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” - 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” - 1943

“There will never be a system invented which will do away with the necessity of work.” Henry Ford, “My Life and Work” - 1922

“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” - 1532

“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” - 1677

“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” - 1915

“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” - 1854

“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” - 1949

“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” - 1889

“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” - 1953

Related topics

nature luxury blindness truth speech invention evil desire honor freedom need lies wrong war law chance work art action right

Related authors

George R. R. Martin (1)
George Orwell (1)
Henry David Thoreau (1)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
Winston Churchill (1)
Albert Einstein (1)
Jules Verne (1)
Jerome K. Jerome (1)
W. Somerset Maugham (1)
Leonardo da Vinci (1)
Thomas Paine (1)
John Milton (1)
Milan Kundera (1)
Orson Scott Card (1)
Rainer Maria Rilke (1)
Aesop (1)
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1)
Henry Ford (1)
Niccolò Machiavelli (1)
Baruch Spinoza (1)

Related sources

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