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Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.

Necessity

A man driven by distress does as much as thirty.Spanish.

He knows not his own strength who hath not met necessity.Ben Jonson.

Make a virtue of necessity.Rabelais, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dryden.

Necessity and opportunity may make a coward valiant.

Necessity becomes will.Italian.

Necessity breaks iron.

Necessity dispenses with decorum.

Necessity has sharp teeth.

Necessity has a greater power than duty.Seneca.

Necessity hath no law.

Necessity the mother of invention.

Necessity, thou mother of the world.Shelley.

Necessity is a bitter herb.German.

Necessity is a disagreeable guest.German.

Necessity is a good teacher.German.

Necessity is a hard master.German.

Necessity is a harsh nurse.German.

Necessity is a powerful weapon.Seneca.

Necessity is the last and strongest weapon.Livy.

Necessity is the mother of invention.French, German, Dutch.

Necessity makes war to be just.Bias.

Necessity never made a good bargain.Franklin.

Necessity seeks bread where it is to be found.German.

Necessity sharpens industry.

Necessity teaches all things.German.

Necessity teaches the lame to dance.German.

Necessity, the tyrant’s plea.Milton.

Necessity unites hearts.German.

The art of our necessity is great that makes vile things precious.Shakespeare.

The inventions of necessity are older than those of pleasure.Cicero.

The necessities of things are sterner stuff than the hopes of man.Benjamin Disraeli.

There is no virtue like necessity.Shakespeare.

Where necessity pinches, boldness is prudence.