And Then There Were None vocabulary

Sophisticated US leadership is the sine qua non of a stable world order. However, we lack the former while the latter is getting worse.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, May 4, 2017 tweet.

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It was as though he knew very well that in Lombard's past actions legality had not always been a sine qua non...

Agatha Christie. And Then There Were None. p.5 (1939)

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the need for qualified officers during his early career prevented Ramius from attending the Frunze Academy. This was normally a sine qua non of career advancement in all of the Soviet armed forces.

Tom Clancy. The Hunt for Red October, p.31 (1984)

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My original surname was Payne, a surname that I venture to say I'm a little proud of; but my uncle, Mr. Aikin, from whom I inherit property," I thought that was rather a good way of putting it, "wished me to adopt his family name in addition to my own—in fact, made it a condition, sine quâ non, of my receiving the property."

Grant Allen. The Beckoning Hand and Other Stories (1884)

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the third cause, or rather what logicians call the Causa sina qua non, and without which all that was done was of no manner of significance,——was the preservation of this delicate and fine-spun web, from the havock which was generally made in it by the violent compression and crush which the head was made to undergo, by the nonsensical method of bringing us into the world by that foremost.

Laurence Sterne. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759)