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Definition 2024


make_a_virtue_of_necessity

make a virtue of necessity

English

Verb

make a virtue of necessity

  1. (idiomatic) To make the best of a difficult situation; to recast or portray an action or situation in which one has no alternatives as an action or situation which was deliberately chosen on its merits.
    • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 4, scene 1:
      Indeed, because you are a banish'd man,
      Therefore, above the rest, we parley to you:
      Are you content to be our general?
      To make a virtue of necessity
      And live, as we do, in this wilderness?
    • 1906, George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara, Preface:
      Nietzsche, as I gather, regarded the slave-morality as having been invented and imposed on the world by slaves making a virtue of necessity and a religion of their servitude.

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