quotations about necessity
No picture of life can have any veracity that does not admit the odious facts. A man's power is hooped in by necessity, which by many experiments, he touches on every side, until he learns its arc.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
The Conduct of Life
Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary necessities ... are the greatest cozenage that men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules by.
OLIVER CROMWELL
speech to Parliament, September 12, 1654
We cannot conquer fate and necessity, yet we can yield to them in such a manner as to be greater than if we could.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
Necessity imposes law, but does not herself receive it.
PUBLIUS SYRUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Oh! marvellous, O stupendous Necessity -- by thy laws thou dost compel every effect to be the direct result of its cause, by the shortest path. These are miracles.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Notebooks
Necessity has a way of obliterating from our conduct various delicate scruples regarding honor and pride.
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Absalom, Absalom!
Necessity is a sore penance; and extremity is as hard to bear as death.
CANTACUZENUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Necessity inspires the fatal thought.
VITTORIO ALFIERI
Agamemnon
When we are incapable of recognizing the laws of necessity, we believe ourselves to be free.
LUDWIG BÖME
attributed, Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists
Freedom is only necessity understood.
WILLIAM JAMES
"The Dilemma of Determinism"
We give to necessity the praise of virtue.
QUINTILIAN
Institutio Oratoria
From blind physical necessity, which is always and everywhere the same, no variety adhering to time and place could evolve, and all variety of created objects which represent order and life in the universe could happen only by the willful reasoning of its original Creator, Whom I call the Lord God.
ISAAC NEWTON
attributed, Our Humanist Heritage
Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
The Will to Power
Constant and exclusive devotion to mere physical necessities, degrades man to the rank of an animal.
FELICITE ROBERT DE LAMENNAIS
The People's Own Book
A grand necessity elevates man; a small one degrades him.
L. J. NIVERNAIS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Necessity does the work of courage.
GEORGE ELIOT
Romola
Stern is the on-look of necessity. Not without a shudder may the hand of man grasp the mysterious urn of destiny.
FRIEDRICH SCHILLER
The Death of Wallenstein
Necessity's sharp pinch!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
King Lear
Nothing is more necessary than the unnecessary.
ROBERTO BENIGNI
Life Is Beautiful
I hold that mortal foolish who strives against the stress of necessity.
EURIPIDES
Hercules Furens