needs must when the devil drives
proverbEtymology Originally “needs must he go whom the devil drives”, where needs is an adverb with the sense “of necessity”.
1
There is sometimes no choice but to do some specific thing.
- He needs must goe, the Devil drives.1664, Charles Cotton, Scarronides; or, Virgile Travestie:
- My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.1623, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well:
1 more example
- I doubt we can make it on foot, laden as we are. Dear me! I think we had better have a cab. An extravagance, of course, but needs must where the devil drives, eh?1956, Gerald Durrell, “The Talking Flowers”, in My Family and Other Animals, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1959 (1974 printing), →OCLC, page 221:
- Synonyms
- needs must, necessity knows no law