Necessity is the mother of invention

Meaning

Difficult situations inspire ingenious solutions.

Origin

The author of this proverbial saying isn't known. It is sometimes ascribed to Plato, although no version of it can be found in his works. It was known in England, although at that point in Latin rather than English, by the 16th century. William Horman, the headmaster of Winchester and Eton, included the Latin form 'Mater artium necessitas' in Vulgaria, a book aphorisms for the boys of the schools to learn by heart, which he published in 1519.

Roger Ascham came close to an English version of the phrase in Toxophilus: 1545:

"Necessitie, the inuentour of all goodnesse."

George Chapman also had a 'close but no cigar' moment with his tragic, two-part play The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron, 1608:

"The great Mother, Of all productions (graue Necessity)."

The earliest actual usage of 'necessity is the mother of invention' that I can find in print is in Richard Franck's 'Northern Memoirs, calculated for the meridian of Scotland'. Originals of this text are difficult to locate, but it was republished in 1821, with a foreword by Sir Walter Scott. The frontispiece of the reprint shows the original to have stated that it was "writ in the year 1658". It contains this:

Art imitates Nature, and Necessity is the Mother of Invention (as all authours in a n, doo saye).

1658 seems the best date we have as the birth of the phrase in English.

Of course, Frank Zappa gave this phrase an extra lease of life with the name of the US 1960s/70s rock/jazz/classical band The Mothers of Invention.

See other proverbs.