desperate times call for desperate measures

• desperate times require desperate measures
• drastic times call for drastic measures

This phrase likely originates with a saying of the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, which appears in his Aphorisms: "For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable.". A similar phrase occurs in Erasmus's Latin adage "Malo nodo, malus quærendus cuneus" (from his 1500 book Adagia, which was first published in English in 1545). Another similar Latin saying, "extremis malis extrema remedia," appears in print as early as 1596.

desperate times call for desperate measures

1. In adverse circumstances, actions that might have been rejected under other circumstances may become the best choice.

• in extremis