Re: He doesn't give a damn about Needs Must Admiring the Best

It sounds like a Memorable Phrase from a sermon. Googling "must needs
admire the best", which seems to be a more natural order for those
words in a sentence, gives one hit, in a document I can't get to
because it's on JSTOR: "The School of English Church Music, Mansion
House Meeting", in _The Musical Times_: "I believe that all men must
needs admire the highest when they see it, and they must needs admire
the best and highest music when they hear it. ..."

The article was published in 1937, not long before ATKM; so Warren or
even his readers might remember it if it had had some public
attention.  If, as seems more likely, not, it's another small
indication that the expression may have had some currency as a
proverb..

The text makes plain these are two cliches (two official
criteria) and not a typographical error for (1) Getting Ahead
(2) Needs Must, (3) Admiring the Best.

The problem is that "Needs Must"
is a recognized proverb, a truncated form of
"Needs must when the Devil drives."
This cannot be traced (by me) to any poem or
similar source of proverbial expressions.
It is a "nanny" expression, i.e. the sort of maxim
a (lower class) nurse would say to (middle class)
children to reinforce adult authority, confirming that
conformity is enforced by circumstances, like it
or not.

But the five words "Needs Must Admiring the Best"
are not recognized as a single proverbial expression.
It looks like more sloppy writing by RPW.

Hello:

Happy New Year 2007, everyone!

I understand that
"Needs Must Admiring the Best"
means something like
"of necessity admiring the best," correct?

------
The Friend of Your Youth is the only friend that you will ever have,
for he hasn't the slightest concern with calculating his interest or
your virtue. He doesn't give a damn, for the moment, about Getting
Ahead and Needs Must Admiring the Best, the two official criteria in
adult friendships, and when the boring stranger appears, he puts out
his hand and smiles (not really  seeing your face), saying, "Well,
Jack, damned glad you came, come on in, boy!"

All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren, p. 336
------

Thanks.
Marius Hancu