„Thanne is it wysdom, as it thynketh me,
To maken vertu of necessity,“

„Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swych licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye
(So priketh hem nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.“

—  Geoffrey Chaucer, book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 1-12
The Canterbury Tales

„The work is an absolute necessity for me.“

—  Vincent Van Gogh Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853 - 1890

Quote in Vincent's letter to Theo van Gogh, from The Hague, 3 June 1883; as cited in Stranger on the Earth : A Psychological Biography of Vincent Van Gogh (1996) by Albert J. Lubin, p. 22
Variant translation: For me, the work is an absolute necessity. I cannot put it off; I don't care for anything else; that is to say, the pleasure in something else ceases at once, and I become melancholy when I cannot go on with my work. I feel then as the weaver does when he sees that his threads have got tangled, the pattern he had on the loom has gone to the deuce, and his exertion and deliberation are lost.
As quoted in Dear Theo: the Autobiography of Vincent Van Gogh (1995) edited by Irving Stone and Jean Stone, p. 204
1880s, 1883
Context: The work is an absolute necessity for me. I can't put it off, I don't care for anything but the work; that is to say, the pleasure in something else ceases at once and I become melancholy when I can't go on with my work. Then I feel like a weaver who sees that his threads are tangled, and the pattern he had on the loom is gone to hell, and all his thought and exertion is lost.

„Good wine is a necessity of life for me.“

—  Thomas Jefferson 3rd President of the United States of America 1743 - 1826

As quoted in The Man from Monticello : An Intimate Life of Thomas Jefferson (1969) by Thomas J. Fleming, p. 250
Posthumous publications

„Honour is to you and me as strong an obligation, as necessity to others.“

—  Pliny the Younger Roman writer 61 - 113

Letter 10, 3.
Letters, Book IV
Original: (la) Neque enim minus apud nos honestas quam apud alios necessitas valet.

„Luxury is not a necessity to me, but beautiful and good things are.“

—  Anaïs Nin writer of novels, short stories, and erotica 1903 - 1977

„The firste vertue, sone, if thou wilt lere,
Is to restreine and kepen wel thy tonge.“

—  Geoffrey Chaucer, book The Canterbury Tales

The Manciples Tale, l. 17281
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Canterbury Tales

„Crown and cloth maken no priest, nor emperor's bishop with his words, but power that crist giveth; and thus by life have been priests known.“

—  John Wycliffe English theologian and early dissident in the Roman Catholic Church

As quoted in Typical English Churchmen (1909) by John Neville Figgis, p. 15

„My position is such that there is no necessity for me to enter into competition with struggling humanity.“

—  Henryk Sienkiewicz, book Without Dogma

"Rome, 9 January"
Without Dogma (1891)
Context: My position is such that there is no necessity for me to enter into competition with struggling humanity. As to expensive and ruinous pleasures, I am a sceptic who knows how much they are worth, or rather, knows that they are not worth anything.

„The most important misunderstanding seems to me to lie in a confusion between the human necessities which I consider part of human nature, and the human necessities as they appear as drives, needs, passions, etc., in any given historical period.“

—  Erich Fromm German social psychologist and psychoanalyst 1900 - 1980

Human Nature and Social Theory (1969)
Context: The most important misunderstanding seems to me to lie in a confusion between the human necessities which I consider part of human nature, and the human necessities as they appear as drives, needs, passions, etc., in any given historical period. This division is not very different from Marx’s concept of "human nature in general", to be distinguished from "human nature as modified in each historical period". The same distinction exists in Marx when he distinguishes between "constant" or "fixed" drives and "relative" drives. The constant drives "exist under all circumstances and … can be changed by social conditions only as far as form and direction are concerned". The relative drives "owe their origin only to a certain type of social organization".

„Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity.“

—  W. H. Auden, book Forewords and Afterwords

"A Poet of the Actual", p. 266
Forewords and Afterwords (1973)
Context: Money is the necessity that frees us from necessity. Of all novelists in any country, Trollope best understands the role of money. Compared with him even Balzac is a romantic.

„And of your herte up-casteth the visage
To thilke God that after his image
Yow made, and thynketh al nis but a faire
This world, that passeth sone as floures faire.“

—  Geoffrey Chaucer, book Troilus and Criseyde

Book 5, line 1835-1841
Troilus and Criseyde (1380s)
Context: O yonge fresshe folkes, he or she,
In which that love up-groweth with your age,
Repeyreth hoom fro worldly vanitee,
And of your herte up-casteth the visage
To thilke God that after his image
Yow made, and thynketh al nis but a faire
This world, that passeth sone as floures faire.

„How dismal the necessity of birth! how miserable the necessity of living! how hard the necessity of death!“

—  Sidonius Apollinaris Gaulish poet, aristocrat and bishop 430 - 489

Lib. 8, Ep. 11, sect. 4; vol. 2, p. 463.
Epistularum
Original: (la) O neccessitas abiecta nascendi, vivendi misera dura moriendi.

„Mr. Neo-Angular – I am doing my duty. My ethics are based on dogma, not on feeling. Vertue – I know that a rule is to be obeyed because it is a rule and not because it appeals to my feelings at the moment.“

—  Clive Staples Lewis, book The Pilgrim's Regress

Pilgrim’s Regress 90
The Pilgrim's Regress (1933)

„Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence.
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.“

—  Geoffrey Chaucer, book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 305 - 310
Source: The Canterbury Tales
Context: Of studie took he most cure and most hede.
Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence.
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.

„The choice now is between militarism and pacifism. To me, the necessity of pacifism seems absolutely clear.“

—  Aldous Huxley English writer 1894 - 1963

Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War (1937) edited by Nancy Cunard and published by the Left Review
Context: As for 'taking sides' — the choice, it seems to me, is no longer between two users of violence, two systems of dictatorship. Violence and dictatorship cannot produce peace and liberty; they can only produce the results of violence and dictatorship, results with which history has made us only too sickeningly familiar. The choice now is between militarism and pacifism. To me, the necessity of pacifism seems absolutely clear.

„Someone within me is struggling to lift a great weight, to cast off the mind and flesh by overcoming habit, laziness, necessity.“

—  Nikos Kazantzakis, book The Saviors of God

The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: Someone within me is struggling to lift a great weight, to cast off the mind and flesh by overcoming habit, laziness, necessity.
I do not know from where he comes or where he goes. I clutch at his onward march in my ephemeral breast, I listen to his panting struggle, I shudder when I touch him.

„I do not accept a religion of fear; My God will not hold me responsible for the actions that necessity imposes.“

—  Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955

Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, p. 89
Context: The God Spinoza revered is my God, too: I meet Him everyday in the harmonious laws which govern the universe. My religion is cosmic, and my God is too universal to concern himself with the intentions of every human being. I do not accept a religion of fear; My God will not hold me responsible for the actions that necessity imposes. My God speaks to me through laws.

„Even if work were not an economic necessity, it is a spiritual necessity.“

—  Neal A. Maxwell Mormon leader 1926 - 2004

„May the Lord give me grace to deny myself, in order to provide for the necessities of the poor! How much may be done even by a little self-denial! Lord, help me! … It is a Christlike spirit in supplying the necessities of the poor, not to ask how little will do for them, but how richly may I possibly supply their need.“

—  George Müller German-English clergyman 1805 - 1898

A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller Written by Himself, Second Part.
Second Part of Narrative