Nothing can be made without the necessary materials.

> ‘The trouble is, said the captain of the Cricket Club at a meeting of the
committee, that young chaps today aren’t interested in the game , so there’s
no chance of running a second eleven. You can’t make bricks without straw.’

In Biblical time bricks were made of mud and straw dried in the sun, the straw
holding the mud together. The source of the proverb is to be found in the
fifth chapter of Exodus.

##### See also:

* What is a workman without his tools