Dorothy Parker John Lothrop Motley - William Shakespeare - Benjamin Franklin - Daniel Defoe - Euripides - Friedrich Nietzsche - Henry Fielding - William Pitt the younger - Pope John Paul II - Proverbs - Agatha Christie - Thomas Fuller - Leonardo da Vinci - Simonides of Ceos -
Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves. Dorothy Parker
Give us the luxuries of life, and we’ll dispense with its necessities. John Lothrop Motley, 1857
All places that the eye of heaven visits
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
There is no virtue like necessity. William Shakespeare, Richard II I iii 271
82,801. I am sworn brother, sweet,
To grim Necessity, and he and I
Will keep a league till death. ibid. V i 20
Construe the times of their necessities. William Shakespeare, II Henry IV IV i 102, Westmoreland
Necessity never made a good bargain. Benjamin Franklin
Necessity makes an honest man a knave. Daniel Defoe, 1660-1731
Nothing have I found stronger than Necessity. Euripides, c.485-406 B.C.
Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation. Friedrich Nietzsche
Necessity is a bad recommendation to favours ... which as seldom fall to those who really want them, as to those who really deserve them. Henry Fielding, 1707-54, The Modern Husband
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom: it is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves. William Pitt the younger, speech House of Commons 18th November 1783
If one is in extreme necessity he has the right to procure for himself what he needs out of the riches of others. Pope John Paul II, The Church in the Modern World
Necessity has no law. Latin proverb, variations & attributions inc Spanish & Arab & Russian proverbs & Publilus Syrus & Gratian & Cromwell et al
Necessity is the mother of invention. Mid-16th century proverb, attributions
I don’t think necessity is the mother of invention – invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble. Agatha Christie, An Autobiography, 1977
Necessity dispenseth with decorum. Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia 3515
Necessity is the mistress and guardian of Nature. Leonardo da Vinci, notebook
Not even the gods fight against necessity. Simonides of Ceos, cited Plato