“Necessity can make a doubtful action innocent, but it cannot make it commendable.”

—  Joseph Joubert

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Necessity can make a doubtful action innocent, but it cannot make it commendable." by Joseph Joubert?
Joseph Joubert photo
Joseph Joubert 253
French moralist and essayist 1754–1824

Related quotes

Georg Cantor photo

“There is no doubt that we cannot do without variable quantities in the sense of the potential infinite. But from this very fact the necessity of the actual infinite can be demonstrated.”

Georg Cantor (1845–1918) mathematician, inventor of set theory

"Über die verschiedenen Ansichten in Bezug auf die actualunendlichen Zahlen" ["Over the different views with regard to the actual infinite numbers"] - Bihand Till Koniglen Svenska Vetenskaps Akademiens Handigar (1886)

Oliver Cromwell photo

“Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imagined necessities… are the greatest cozenage that men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretenses to break known rules by.”

Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) English military and political leader

Speech to the First Protectorate Parliament (12 September 1654)

Francesco Berni photo

“Making a virtue of necessity.”

Francesco Berni (1497–1535) Italian poet

III, 86
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato

Robert Burton photo

“Make a virtue of necessity.”

Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy

Section 3, member 4, subsection 1.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“3313. Make a Virtue of Necessity.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Isaac Asimov photo

“Necessity makes a joke of civilization.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

In Joy Still Felt (1980), p. 124
General sources

Charlotte Brontë photo

“It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.”

Charlotte Brontë book Jane Eyre

Jane (Ch. 12)
Jane Eyre (1847)
Context: It is in vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquility: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it. Millions are condemned to a stiller doom than mine, and millions are in silent revolt against their lot. Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life which people earth. Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties, and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

Malcolm X photo

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Sallust photo

“Necessity makes even the timid brave.”
Necessitas etiam timidos fortes facit.

Sallust (-86–-34 BC) Roman historian, politician

Source: Bellum Catilinae (c. 44 BC), Chapter LVII

Related topics