Necessity: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Nature never did betray The heart that loved her.— WORDSWORTH — Lines Composed Above
Tintern Abbey. One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can.— WORDSWORTH — The Tables Turned.
The stars of midnight shall be dear To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound Shall pass into her face.— WORDSWORTH — Three Years She Grew
in Sun and Shower. The streams with softest sound are flowing, The grass you almost hear it growing, You hear it now, if e'er you can.— WORDSWORTH — The Idiot Boy. St. 57.
To the solid ground Of Nature trusts the Mind that builds for aye.— WORDSWORTH — A Volant Tribe of
Bards on Earth. Two Voices are there: one is of the sea, One of the mountains; each a mighty Voice.— WORDSWORTH — Thought of a Briton on
the Subjugation of Switzerland. In distant wilds, by human eyes unseen, She rears her flowers, and spreads her velvet green; Pure gurgling rills the lonely desert trace And waste their music on the savage race.— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire V. L. 232.
Nothing in Nature, much less conscious being, Was e'er created solely for itself.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night IX. L. 711.
Such blessings Nature pours, O'erstock'd mankind enjoy but half her stores. S.— YOUNG — Love of Fame. Satire V. L. 230.
The course of Nature is the art of God.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night IX. L. 1,280.
Necessity is stronger far than art. и.— ÆSCHYLUS — Prometheus Chained. L. 513.
Thanne is it wysdom, as thynketh me, To maken vertu of necessité, And take it weel, that we may not eschu, And namely that that to us alle is due.— CHAUCER — Canterbury Tales. The Knighte's Tale. L. 2,182.
Then 'tis our best, since thus ordained to die, To make a virtue of necessity.— DRYDEN — Palamon and Arcite. Bk. III. L. 1,084.
Not mine This saying, but the sentence of the sage, Nothing is stronger than necessity.— EURIPIDES — Helena. L. 560.
Art imitates nature, and necessity is the mother of invention.— RICHARD FRANCK — Northern Memoirs.
Written in 1658, printed in 1696. P. 52. So spake the Fiend, and with necessity, The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.— MILTON — Paradise Lost. Bk. IV. L. 393.
My steps have pressed the flowers, That to the Muses' bowers The eternal dews of Helicon have given : And trod the mountain height, Where Science, young and bright, Scans with poetic gaze the midnight-heaven. Yet have I found no power to vie With thine, severe necessity!— THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK — Necessity.
Necessity was the argument of tyrants; it was the creed of slaves.— WM. PITT — Speech on the India Bill.
Nov. 18, 1783. Obliged by hunger and request of friends.— POPE — Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot. Prologue to the Satires. L. 44.
Necessity-thou best of peacemakers, As well as surest prompter of invention.— SCOTT — Peveril of the Peak. Heading of Ch. XXVI.
Necessity's sharp pinch!— Shakespeare — King Lear. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 214.
Now sit we close about this taper here, And call in question our necessities. Julius Cæsar. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 165. Teach thy necessity to reason thus; There is no virtue like necessity.— Shakespeare — Richard II. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 277.
Spirit of Nature! all-sufficing Power! Necessity, thou mother of the world!— SHELLEY — Queen Mab. Pt. VI.
Necessity, the mother of invention.— WYCHERLY — Love in a Wood. Act III. Act III. Sc. 3.
Æqua lege necessitas Sortitur insignes et imos. Necessity takes impartially the highest and the lowest.— HORACE — Carmina. III. 1. 14.
C. Necessitas ultimum et maximum telum est. Necessity is the last and strongest weapon.— LIVY — Annales. IV. 28.
Discite quam parvo liceat producere vitam, Et quantum natura petat. Learn on how little man may live, and how small a portion nature requires.— LUCAN — Pharsalia. IV. 377.
Il faisoit de nécessité vertu. He made a virtue of necessity..— RABELAIS — Gargantua. I. 11.
Le superflu, chose très nécessaire. The superfluous, a very necessary thing.— VOLTAIRE — Le Mondain.