Quote
By Plato
Then, I said, let us begin and create in idea a State; and yet the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention.
- Source
- The Republic, Republic, Book II
- Read at
- Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett, The Dialogues of Plato (Project Gutenberg text, eBook #1497)
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About this quote
From Book II of The Republic, in Benjamin Jowett's translation. Plato wrote it as a dialogue, so the words are Plato's text. Socrates is the speaker, as he starts to build the ideal city in speech with Adeimantus. It is the source of the proverb that necessity is the mother of invention, in Jowett's wording.