Necessity is the mother of invention

• The expression means that if you look hard enough a solution to your problem will come to you.

Origin

• This everyday expression comes from one of Aesop's Fables, ‘The Crow and the Pitcher’. Aesop lived between c. 620-560 BCE.
• It is also attributed to Plato (428-328 BCE) who wrote it in his Work ‘Republic’.

Aesop’s Fable ‘The Crow and the Pitcher’

• A crow, dying of thirst, saw a pitcher of water, and flew excitedly towards it. But when he was beside it, there was only a little water at the bottom, which despite all his efforts, he could not reach.
• Finally, the crow hit upon the idea of dropping stones from his beak, into the pitcher, one by one.
• This raised the water level to the top, where he was able to drink it.
• The moral of this fable is that necessity is the mother of invention.