“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
“Must! Is must a word to be addressed to princes? Little man, little man! thy father, if he had been alive, durst not have used that word.”
“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.”
“Nobody should trust their virtue with necessity, the force of which is never known till it is felt, and it is therefore one of the first duties to avoid the temptation of it.”
“The necessary has never been man's top priority. The passionate pursuit of the nonessential and the extravagant is one of the chief traits of human uniqueness. Unlike other forms of life, man's greatest exertions are made in the pursuit not of necessities but of superfluities.”