Necessity--thou best of peacemakers,
As well as surest prompter of invention.

Necessity--thou best of peacemakers,
As well as surest prompter of invention.

The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious.

The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious.

Men try to run life according to their wishes; life runs itself according to necessity.

Men try to run life according to their wishes; life runs itself according to necessity.

If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.

If people should ever start to do only what is necessary millions would die of hunger.

My steps have pressed the flowers,
That to the Muses' bowers
The eternal dews of Helicon have read more

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!

Our necessities are few but our wants are endless.

Our necessities are few but our wants are endless.

Now we sit close about this taper here
And call in question our necessities.

Now we sit close about this taper here
And call in question our necessities.

Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.

Necessity is blind until it becomes conscious. Freedom is the consciousness of necessity.

No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the emnity o' th' air,
To read more

No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the emnity o' th' air,
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl,
Necessity's sharp pinch.