Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied with everything that nature can demand, than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The superfluous is very necessary.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Against necessity, against its strength, no one can fight and win.
—Aeschylus (525–456 BCE) Greek Playwright
The necessary has never been man’s top priority. The passionate pursuit of the nonessential and the extravagant is one of the chief traits of human uniqueness. Unlike other forms of life, man’s greatest exertions are made in the pursuit not of necessities but of superfluities.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
A people never fairly begins to prosper till necessity is treading on its heels. The growing want of room is one of the sources of civilization. Population is power, but it must be a population that, in growing, is made daily apprehensive of the morrow.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Novelist, Historian
An extravagance is something that your spirit thinks is a necessity.
—Bert Williams (1876–1922) American Entertainer, Actor
Invention is the mother of necessity.
—Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) American Economist, Social Critic
Necessity teaches all things
—German Proverb
Necessity is not an established fact, but rather an interpretation.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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 (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
To hard necessity ones will and fancy must conform.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Necessity, the mother of invention.
—William Wycherley (c.1640–1716) English Dramatist
Necessity is often the spur to genius.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
Arguably the only goods people need these days are food and happiness.
—Terence Conran (1931–2020) English Designer, Businessman
If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
It is necessity and not pleasure that compels us.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
Necessity is the mistress and guardian of Nature.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
Vice came in always at the door of necessity, not at the door of inclination.
—Daniel Defoe (1659–1731) English Writer, Journalist, Pamphleteer
Necessity reconciles and brings men together; and this accidental connection afterwards forms itself into laws.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Must! Is must a word to be addressed to princes? Little man, little man! thy father, if he had been alive, durst not have used that word.
—Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) British Monarch
Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
Great necessity elevates man, petty necessity casts him down
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
We have entered an age in which education is not just a luxury permitting some men an advantage over others. It has become a necessity without which a person is defenseless in this complex, industrialized society. We have truly entered the century of the educated man.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
Fear is the underminer of all determinations; and necessity, the victorious rebel of all laws.
—Philip Sidney (1554–86) English Soldier Poet, Courtier
Necessity takes impartially the highest and the lowest.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Teach thy necessity to reason thus;
There is no virtue like necessity.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Necessity never made a good bargain.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Necessity does the work of courage.
—Nicholas Murray Butler (1862–1947) American Philosopher, Diplomat, Educator
Our necessities are few, but our wants are endless.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
And with necessity, the tyrant’s plea, excused his devilish deeds.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Necessity has the face of a dog.
—Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927–2014) Colombian Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Nature must obey necessity.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The necessities were going by default to save the luxuries until I hardly knew which were necessities and which luxuries.
—Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American Architect
Fact I know; and Law I know; but what is this Necessity, save an empty shadow of my own mind’s throwing?
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
Necessity does everything well.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Necessity is a violent school-mistress.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Foul water will quench fire.
—English Proverb
We do what we must, and call it by the best names.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Necessity is the mother of invention.
—Common Proverb
Necessity makes an honest man a knave.
—Daniel Defoe (1659–1731) English Writer, Journalist, Pamphleteer
Necessity has no law.
—Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) British Head of State, Military Leader
How base a thing it is when a man will struggle with necessity! We have to die.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
We come into the world laden with the weight of an infinite necessity.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Make yourself necessary to somebody.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Freedom is the recognition of necessity.
—Friedrich Engels (1820–95) German Socialist Political Philosopher