Meaning:
Obtain kudos from apparently willingly doing something that one was in fact
couldn't avoid doing. It is also used to mean `submit with good grace'.
Background:
This is first recorded in Chaucer. Shakespeare also used it in Two Gentlemen
of Verona, 1591.
Second Outlaw 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?
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Out of habit, some people make a necessity of virtues. These eccentrics ignore
standards and fads and live a comical life. My friend Bill needs both hands to
crack an egg. After dumping the main content, he has to make sure to scoop the
last drop from each half eggshell using an index finger. He then plants the
leftover in his herb pots and claims it beats any fertilizer from the store. We
laugh at his oddities all the time.
