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!

It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or
whether I am serious, just read more

It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or
whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know
it myself.

Necessity never made a good bargain

Necessity never made a good bargain

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

The graveyards are full of indispensable men.

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 hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary
necessities, are the greatest cozenage men can put upon the
Providence read more

Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary
necessities, are the greatest cozenage men can put upon the
Providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules by.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

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 read more

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