1668 DRYDEN & NEWCASTLE Sir Martin Mar-all V. i. I’m resolv’d to be on the
sure side. 1811 J. AUSTEN Sense & Sensibility III. iv. Determining to be on the safe side,
he made his apology in form as soon as he could say any thing. 1847 MARRYAT
Children of New Forest I. xi. Be on the safe side, and do not trust him too far. 1935 L. I.
WILDER Little House on Prairie iii. Best to be on the safe side, it saves trouble in the
end. 1981 Economist 28 Nov. 100 The Rowland-Molina hypothesis about the damaging
effects of CFCs has not been disproved, so it is best to be on the safe side. prudence;
securitybest see also ACCIDENTS will happen (in the best-regulated families); ATTACK is the
best form of defence; the best DEFENSE is a good offense; why should the DEVIL have all
the best tunes?; the best DOCTORS are Dr Diet, Dr Quiet, and Dr Merryman; EAST, west,
home’s best; EXPERIENCE is the best teacher; FIRST thoughts are best; FIRST up, best
dressed; the GOOD is the enemy of the best; HONESTY is the best policy; HOPE for the best
and prepare for the worst; HUNGER is the best sauce; he LAUGHS best who laughs last;
LAUGHTER is the best medicine; if you have to LIVE in the river, it is best to be friends with
the crocodile; it is best to be OFF with the old love before you are on with the new; an old
POACHER makes the best gamekeeper; SECOND thoughts are best; SILENCE is a woman’s
best garment.
BETTER a century of tyranny than one day of chaosIbn Taymiyyah (or Taimiya) was a fourteenth-century scholar of Damascus; this saying
seems to have originated in his Kitāb al-Siyasa al-Shar’iya (Book of Divinely Ordered
[literally, ‘Sharia’] Politics) written c 1311–15 (see quot. 1966).
1966 F. RAHMAN Islam 239 Ibn Tamiya immediately follows up the.. alleged
Hadith with the quotation, ‘sixty days of an unjust ruler are much better than one night of
lawlessness’. 1994 H. MUTALIB Islam in Malaysia 64 Ibn Taymiyyah maintained that it
is better to suffer a corrupt leadership for sixty days rather than face one day of chaos and
anarchy. 2004 ‘Taking Hostages’ on http://www.pbs.org 30 Sept. You know there’s a very
famous Arab saying that says.. something like 40 years of tyranny, not one day of chaos.
And this chaos.. that has engulfed Iraq for the last year and a half is just devastating for
the prospects of any future American backed government in Iraq. 2007 posting in Arizona
Republic on http://www.azcentral.com 22 Jan. I wonder if, before waging war against Iraq,
President Bush had ever heard the famous Arab saying: ‘Better a century of tyranny than
one day of chaos.’ rulers and ruledBETTER a dinner of herbs than a stalled ox where hate is