Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

Politicians
William Pitt the Younger
British prime minister (1759-1806). At 24 the youngest ever, he led Britain through the Napoleonic Wars, reformed finance, introduced income tax (1798), and engineered the 1800 Act of Union. Died unmarried at 46.
View this figure's profile
William Pitt the Younger's Other Quotes
Related Quotes
Exile is not an evil.
-- Gaius Musonius Rufus
Cato, while he lived, lived in such a way that he lacked nothing — so long as he was free to die.
-- Cato the Younger
What frees you from slavery is not wealth but needing nothing.
-- Crates of Thebes
If I were not Alexander, I would wish to be Diogenes.
-- Diogenes of Sinope
Stand a little out of my sunlight.
-- Diogenes of Sinope
In the northern darkness there is a fish called Kun. The Kun is so vast one cannot tell how many thousands of li it spans. It transforms into a bird called Peng. The back of the Peng is so vast one cannot tell how many thousands of li it spans.
-- Zhuang Zhou