Necessity is the mother of invention

"Necessity is the mother of invention" is a well-known proverb. It means, roughly, that the primary driving force for most new inventions is a need.
History.
The author of this proverb is unknown. One of the earliest recorded instances is in one of Aesop’s Fables, “The Crow and the Pitcher” from the mid 6th century BCE. Plato's "Republic" says "our need will be the real creator", which Jowett's 1894 translation rendered loosely as "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention."
The connection of mother and necessity is documented in Latin and in English in the 16th century: William Horman quoted the Latin phrase "Mater artium necessitas" ("The mother of invention is necessity") in 1519; Roger Ascham said "Necessitie, the inventour of all goodnesse" in 1545. In 1608, George Chapman, in his two-part play "The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron", used a very similar phrase: "The great Mother / Of all productions, grave Necessity." And the exact phrase is used by Richard Franck in 1658.
The phrase was also used in medieval French. It is found in a collection of proverbs dating to 1485-1490, and is included with another saying, "Hunger makes people resourceful," and an illustration of one man eating a carrot and another man eating grass.
Criticism.
In an address to the Mathematical Association of England on the importance of education in 1917, Alfred North Whitehead argued that "the basis of invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity," and in contrast to the old proverb "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much nearer to the truth.