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!

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.

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.

It is bad to live for necessity; but there is no necessity to
live in necessity.
[Lat., Malum read more

It is bad to live for necessity; but there is no necessity to
live in necessity.
[Lat., Malum est necessitati vivere; sed in necessitate vivere
necessitas nulla est.]

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the read more

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

Art imitates nature, and necessity is the mother of invention.

Art imitates nature, and necessity is the mother of invention.

We do what we must, and call it by the best names.

We do what we must, and call it by the best names.

Thanne is it wysdom, as thynketh me,
To maken vertu of necessite,
And take it weel, that read more

Thanne is it wysdom, as thynketh me,
To maken vertu of necessite,
And take it weel, that we may not eschu,
And namely that that to us alle is due.

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed read more

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.