Needs must when the devil drives; there's no gainsaying of it.
 François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534). copy citation

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Author François Rabelais
Source Gargantua and Pantagruel
Topic devil needs
Date 1534
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty and Peter Antony Motteux
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1200/1200-h/1200-h.htm

Context

“You say that when a lion roars all the beasts at a considerable distance round about, as far as his roar can be heard, are seized with a shivering. This is written, it is true, I have seen it. I assure you that at Master Gaster's command the very heavens tremble, and all the earth shakes. His command is called, Do this or die. Needs must when the devil drives; there's no gainsaying of it.
The pilot was telling us how, on a certain time, after the manner of the members that mutinied against the belly, as Aesop describes it, the whole kingdom of the Somates went off into a direct faction against Gaster, resolving to throw off his yoke; but they soon found their mistake, and most humbly submitted, for otherwise they had all been famished.” source

Meaning and analysis

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