Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Saying ·197 of 348
"Necessity is the mother of invention. — Plato"
They never said that.
What people say
"Necessity is the mother of invention. — Plato"
What was actually said
"Often attributed to Plato, but no matching Greek passage exists." Anonymous (often misattributed to Plato) — Attribution fabricated; English form first in Richard Franck's Northern Memoirs (1658)
Why it stuck
Plato's Republic II.369c says "our need will be the real creator" in Benjamin Jowett's 1871 English rendering — not the modern proverb. The match is thematic, not textual.
William Horman's Vulgaria (1519) has an earlier Latin form: "Mater artium necessitas."
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.