Literary notes about Necessity (AI summary)
In literature, "necessity" serves as a versatile term that captures both the inescapable forces of circumstance and the underlying conditions that govern human behavior. Authors use it to denote external compulsion—illustrated by financial pressures that force decisions [1] or the inexorable demands of economic reality [2]—as well as internal, moral imperatives that define human actions [3]. At times, necessity is portrayed as an essential, almost cosmic principle that shapes destiny and underpins social order [4], while in other contexts it becomes the basis for justifying inventions and reformations [5]. Whether evoking the relentless pull of fate or the critical need for practical measures in society [6], the concept of necessity remains a compelling motif across literary and philosophical writings.
- This, and the necessity of ready money, compelled him to decide on an auction, much as he would have preferred to keep the venerable goods.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy - The individual is nominally free, but he is also powerless in a world bound hand and foot in the chains of economic necessity.
— from The Republic of Plato by Plato - "I assure you, my dear sir," he said, "that my greatest fear is the necessity of any exposure—any disgrace.
— from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon - This therefore is the essence of necessity.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - Necessity has been proverbially termed the mother of invention; the aphorism may be extended to virtue.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft - War, he says, in this oft-quoted passage, is sometimes a necessity.
— from Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay by Immanuel Kant
