A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

silly child, was it binding? You mustn’t do evil that good may come of it.. but the boy

was only fourteen and practically half-witted, and Lisa was an absurd little Quixote.

good and evil; ways and means

evil see also a GREAT book is a great evil; IDLENESS is the root of all evil; MONEY is
the root of all evil; SEE no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil; SUFFICIENT unto the day is the
evil thereof.

Of two EVILS choose the less

C f. ARISTOTLE Nicomachean Ethics II. ix. 1109a
we must as a second-best course, it is said, take the least
of the evils; CICERO De Officiis III. xxix. minima de malis, of evils choose the least.

c 1385 CHAUCER Troilus & Criseyde II. 470 Of harmes two, the lesse is for to

chese. c 1440 Gesta Romanorum (EETS) 10 Of too Evelis the lasse Evill is to be chosyn.

1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs I. v. B2 Of two yls, chose the least while

choyse lyth in lot. 1785 J. BOSWELL Journal of Tour to Hebrides 464 ‘O ho! Sir, (said

I), you are flying to me for refuge!’.. ‘It is of two evils choosing the least.’ 1891 A.

FORBES Barracks, Bivouacs & Battles 187 Either the Turks would make a prisoner of

me.. or I must.. take my chance of the Russian fire. .. ‘Of two evils choose the less,’ says

the wise proverb. 1975 J. PORTER Package Included Murder xiv. She didn’t want to

wake dear Constance, who really needed all the sleep she could get, but if she didn’t..

Miss Jones chose the lesser of two evils. choices

EXAMPLE is better than precept

Cf. SENECA Letters vi. 5 longum iter est per precepta, breve et efficax per exempla, long
is the way by means of precepts, short and effective by examples.

1400 J. MIRK Festial (EETS) 216 Then saythe Seynt Austeyn [Augustine] that an

ensampull yn doyng ys mor commendabull then ys techyng other [or] prechyng. a 1568

R. ASCHAM Schoolmaster (1570) I. 20 One example, is more valiable.. than xx.

preceptes written in bookes. 1708 M. PRIOR Literary Works (1971) I. 535 Example

draws where Precept fails, And Sermons are less read than Tales. 1828 D. M. MOIR

Mansie Wauch xix. Example is better than precept, as James Batter observes. 1981 P.

O’DONNELL Xanadu Talisman ii. Example is always better than precept, remember.

example, good and bad; words and deeds