Learn on how little man may live, and how small a portion nature
requires.
[Lat., Discite quam parvo read more

Learn on how little man may live, and how small a portion nature
requires.
[Lat., Discite quam parvo liceat producere vitam,
Et quantum natura petat.]

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts read more

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.

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.

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.

The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious.

The art of our necessities is strange, That can make vile things precious.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

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!

To make necessity a virtue (a virtue of necessity).
[Lat., Necessitatem in virtutem commutarum.]

To make necessity a virtue (a virtue of necessity).
[Lat., Necessitatem in virtutem commutarum.]

Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of the two read more

Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of the two everlasting empires, necessity and free will.