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About this quote

What does it mean?
Physical needs and ethical drives combine to create powerful forces in the world.
In plain terms
Needs and ethics together make strong forces.
What can you take from it?
Understand necessity as a driving force.

Where it applies

  • social movements
  • personal motivation

Putting it to work

  • analyze underlying needs
  • align ethics with reality

Questions to consider

  • What drives human change?
  • Is necessity always moral?

Another view

Calling necessity divine may justify suffering.

More from Jose Rizal

  1. Travel is a caprice in childhood, a passion in youth, a necessity in manhood, and an elegy in old age.

    Permalink to quote #29
  2. Law has no skin, reason has no nostrils.

    Permalink to quote #31
  3. God has made man a cosmopolite. He created seas for ships to glide on, the wind to push them, and the stars to guide them even in darkest night.

    Permalink to quote #28

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