"These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by the scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman."
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Abigail Adams, in a letter to John Quincy Adams (19 January 1780)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Necessity
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Necessity
Necessity is the quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite. In Greek mythology this quality was personified as the goddess Ananke who was mother of the Moirae, the Fates; in Roman mythology she was known as Necessitas. This page is for quotations on the theme of Necessity and the necessary.
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