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.

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father.

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.

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 takes impartially the highest and the lowest.
[Lat., Aequa lege necessitas
Sortitur insignes et imos.]

Necessity takes impartially the highest and the lowest.
[Lat., Aequa lege necessitas
Sortitur insignes et imos.]

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.

To make necessity a virtue (a virtue of necessity).
[Lat., Necessitatem in virtutem commutarum.]

To make necessity a virtue (a virtue of necessity).
[Lat., Necessitatem in virtutem commutarum.]

Necessity is the author of change

Necessity is the author of change

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!