“Necessity makes a joke of civilization.”
In Joy Still Felt (1980), p. 124
General sources
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Isaac Asimov 303
American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston Uni… 1920–1992Related quotes
“Civilization never recedes; the law of necessity ever forces it onwards.”
La civilisation ne recule jamais, et il semble qu’elle emprunte tous les droits à la nécessité.
Part III, ch. XVI
The Mysterious Island (1874)
“They're making a joke of our universe”
An American Prayer (1978)
“Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke.”
“Making a virtue of necessity.”
III, 86
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato
Section 3, member 4, subsection 1.
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III
Sphinx Society lecture, Brown University, April 3, 2003 (as reported in the Brown Daily Herald
Source: 1920s, Civilization and Its Discontents (1929), Ch. 2, as translated by James Strachey, p.62
“3313. Make a Virtue of Necessity.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)