make a virtue of (a) necessity derive some credit or benefit from an unwelcome obligation.
☞ This is a concept found in Latin in the writings of St Jerome: facis de necessitate virtutem 'you make a virtue of necessity'. It passed into Old French (faire de necessité vertu) and was apparently first used in English around 1374 by Chaucer in Troilus and Criseyde.
2002Australian Financial Review Making in the best manner a virtue out of a necessity he went native with great success.