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Necessity has been with great truth called the mother of invention. Some of the noblest exertions of the human mind have been set in motion by the necessity of satisfying the wants of the body. Want has not unfrequently given wings to the imagination of the poet, pointed the flowing periods of the historian, and added acuteness to the researches of the philosopher. Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population and A Summary View of the Principle of Population, ed. Anthony Flew (New York: Penguin, 1985), 203-4
Not rich one moment to be poor for ever; Not… a mean pensioner On outward forms, did we in presence stand Of that magnificent region. Wordsworth, The Thirteen-Book Prelude, ed. Mark L. Reed (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), 193.
When thou dost greater judgements SPARE, And with thy knife but prune and PARE, Ev’n fruitful trees more fruitful ARE. George Herbert, “Paradise,” in The Complete English Poems, ed. John Tobin (New York: Penguin, 1991).
“Systematically eliminate the use of certain kinds of words or phrases from a piece of writing, either your own or someone else’s…” “Eliminate material systematically from a piece of your own writing until it’s ‘ultimately’ reduced.” Bernadette Mayer, “Experiments,” in The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book, ed. Bruce Andrews and Charles Bernstein (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984).
In the Knowledge of Bodies, we must be content to glean, what we can, from particular Experiments: since we cannot from a Discovery of their real Essences, grasp at a time whole Sheaves; and in bundles, comprehend the Nature and Properties of whole Species together. John Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding (IV.xii.12).
Joseph Priestley “Doctor Phlogiston” Doctor Phlogiston, The Priestley Philosopher or the Political Priest , July 1791, Attic Miscellany
There is no group without some kind of recruiting officer. No flock of sheep without a shepherd—and his dog, his walking stick, his piles of vaccination certificates, his mountain of paperwork to get EU subsidies. Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social (2004) As a common shepherd all I have to do is delegate to a wooden fence the task of containing my flock – then I can just go to sleep with my dog beside me. Who is acting while I am asleep? Me, the carpenters, and the fence…The fence doesn’t look at all like me. It is an actant in its own right. Latour, “On Interobjectivity” (1996)
Till thirty were not left alive They dwindled, dwindled, one by one… They dwindled one by one away… They dwindled, Sir, sad sight to see! From ten to five, from five to three, A lamb, a weather, and a ewe; And then, at last, from three to two; And of my fifty, yesterday I had but only one, And here it lies upon my arm, Alas! And I have none… “The Last of the Flock,” in Lyrical Ballads and Other Poems, 1797-1800, ed. Jared Butler and Karen Green (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992), 87.
