English Proverbs – NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

Proverb Expansion

The proverb means that the urgent need for anything leads us to achieve it by any means. When we do not need a thing, we are not bothered about it. But when we are extremely in need of it, we are forced to find the way of getting it. Man has invented several useful things. Behind every one of these inventions, we can find a necessity for it. In other words, the invention was born out of urgent necessity. So it is said that necessity is the mother of invention. Hundreds of illustrations of this could be given. Man’s necessity to fight with and kill animals made him make sharp-pointed stones. He invented clothes when there was a necessity to cover his body in winter. This then led to the invention of instruments for making clothes such as the spinning wheel and the weaver’s loom. Man also invented the art of building houses to protect him from bad weather. To cross rivers and lakes and seas, boats and ships were made. When the necessity of carrying things from one place to another arose, man invented the means of transport. In the early age of mankind, the necessity of communicating with one another led men to the invention of languages. Later, the necessity of keeping some record arose, and this led to the invention of writing. So we can rightly say that necessity is the mother of invention.