Necessity is the mother of invention

1. A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem. This saying appears in the dialogue Republic, by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.

Idioms and Phrases

Inventiveness and ingenuity are stimulated by difficulty. For example, The first prisoner to tie together bedsheets to escape knew that necessity was the mother of invention. This proverb first appeared in English in 1519 in slightly different form, “Need taught him wit,” and exists in many other languages as well.

Example Sentences

Necessity is the mother of invention, and this new wave of persecution will push the Chinese church toward greater dynamism even as it fights to survive—on or offline.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"That's when the idea clicked. Necessity is the mother of invention, and that's how I began experimenting with agrivoltaics."

Read more on BBC

Throughout all this, Palestinians who have survived in Gaza until now have lived out the adage that necessity is the mother of invention.

Read more on Salon

But for “Ride,” as for an increasing number of regional stage productions across the country, necessity is the mother of invention — and for most theater companies, already strained by the COVID-19 pandemic and facing tightened budgets, the main necessities are “sell more tickets” and “lower costs.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The proverb "necessity is the mother of invention" has been used to describe the source from which our cultural evolution springs.

Read more on Science Daily