Of evils to choose the least. [ Cicero ]
Death is a panacea for all evils. [ Montaigne ]
Some evils are cured by contempt. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Poverty is a complication of evils. [ Proverb ]
Such is the short sum of our evils. [ Ovid ]
Of two evils I have chose the least. [ Prior ]
Ignorance is the mother of all evils. [ Montaigne ]
Having waste ground enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? [ William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure ]
Most of our evils come from our vices. [ Proverb ]
Desperate evils generally make men safe. [ Seneca ]
There is no remedy for all evils but death. [ Proverb ]
Before the curing of a strong disease,
Even in the instant of repair and health,
The fit is strongest; evils that take leave.
On their departure most of all show evil. [ William Shakespeare ]
Old Age, a second child, by nature curst
With more and greater evils than the first.
Weak, sickly, full of pains: in every breath
Railing at life, and yet afraid of death. [ Churchill ]
Of two evils the less is always to be chosen. [ Thomas A Kempis ]
Favours injudiciously conferred I reckon evils. [ Cicero ]
Sense of pleasure we may well
Spare out of life perhaps, and not repine.
But live content, which is the calmest life;
But pain is perfect misery, the worst
Of evils, and excessive, overturns All patience. [ Milton ]
How much pain the evils have cost us that have never happened!
I have often thought of death, and I find it the least of all evils. [ Jeremy Taylor ]
Men possessing small souls are generally the authors of great evils. [ Goethe ]
Life often presents us with a choice of evils, rather than of goods. [ C. C. Colton ]
We pity in others only those evils which we have ourselves experienced. [ Rousseau ]
It is some compensation for great evils that they enforce great lessons. [ Bovee ]
Imaginary evils soon become real ones by indulging our reflections on them. [ Swift ]
Great evils one triumphs over bravely, but the little eat away one's heart. [ Mrs. Carlyle ]
Except pain of body and remorse of conscience, all our evils are imaginary. [ Rousseau ]
Let us not make imaginary evils when we have so many real ones to encounter. [ Goldsmith ]
The enjoyments of this life are not equal to its evils, even if equal in number. [ Pliny ]
The jawbone of the evil one by means of an apple brought all evils into the world.
That happiness may enter the soul, we must first sweep it clean of all imaginary evils. [ Fontanelle ]
Circumstance, that unspiritual god and miscreator, makes and helps along our coming evils. [ Byron ]
True magnanimity does not consist so much in undertaking difficult things, as enduring evils. [ Proverb ]
Evils have their comfort; good none can support (to wit) with a moderate and contented heart. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
Hope! hope, you miserable! There is no infinite mourning, no incurable evils, no eternal hell! [ Victor Hugo ]
Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and future evils, but present evils triumph over it. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
Evils can never pass away; for there must always remain something which is antagonistic to good. [ Plato ]
Even the best things ill used become evils; and, contrarily, the worst things used well prove good. [ Bishop Hall ]
To great evils one must oppose great virtues; and also to small, which is the harder task of the two. [ Carlyle ]
It is the strange fate of man that even in the greatest evils the fear of worse continues to haunt him. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
Philosophy triumphs easily over evils past and evils to come; but, present evils triumph over philosophy. [ La Rochefoucauld ]
Death to the Christian is the funeral of all his sorrows and evils, and the resurrection of all his joys. [ Aughey ]
In experiencing the ills of nature, one despises death; in learning the evils of society, one despises life. [ Chamfort ]
Gluttony and drunkenness have two evils attendant on them; they make the carcass smart, as well as the pocket. [ Marcus Antoninus ]
War, with all its evils, is better than a peace in which there is nothing to be seen but usurpation and injustice. [ Pitt ]
Death is not, in fact, the worst of all evils; when it comes, it is a relief to those who are worn out with suffering. [ Metastasio ]
Of all the evils of the world which are reproached with an evil character, death is the most innocent of its accusation. [ Jeremy Taylor ]
These evils I deserve, yet despair not of His final pardon whose ear is ever open and his eye gracious to readmit the supplicant. [ Milton ]
Among those evils which befall us, there are many which have been more painful to us in the prospect than by their actual pressure. [ Addison ]
In the history of man it has been very generally the case that when evils have grown insufferable they have touched the point of cure. [ Chapin ]
Death, of all estimated evils, is the only one whose presence never incommoded anybody, and which only causes concern during its absence. [ Arcesilaus ]
It is by no means a fact that death is the worst of all evils; when it comes it is an alleviation to mortals who are worn out with sufferings. [ Metastasio ]
Misery and ignorance are always the cause of great evils. Misery is easily excited to anger, and ignorance soon yields to perfidious counsels. [ Addison ]
Misery is caused for the most part, not by a heavy crash of disaster, but by the corrosion of less visible evils, which canker enjoyment and undermine security. [ Dr. Johnson ]
Enjoy the blessings of this day if God sends them; and the evils bear patiently and sweetly. For this day only is ours; we are dead to yesterday, and we are not born to tomorrow. [ Jeremy Taylor ]
Against specious appearances we must set clear convictions, bright and ready for use. When death appears as an evil, we ought immediately to remember that evils are things to be avoided, but death is inevitable. [ Epictetus ]
I have often reflected within myself on this unaccountable humor in womankind of being smitten with everything that is showy and superficial, and on the numberless evils that befall the sex from this light fantastical disposition. [ Addison ]
He that is ambitious for his son, should give him untried names, For those have served other men, haply may injure by their evils; Or otherwise may hinder by their glories; therefore set him by himself. To win for his individual name some clear praise. [ Tupper ]
Imaginary evils soon become real ones, by indulging our reflections on them; as he who in a melancholy fancy sees something like a face on the wall, or the wainscot, can, by two or three touches with a lead pencil, make it look visible, and agreeing with what he fancied. [ Swift ]
The physical plagues and the calamities of human nature have rendered society necessary. Society has added to the evils of nature; the imperfections of society have created the necessity for government, and government adds still further to the woes of society: this is the whole history of humanity. [ Chamfort ]
True hope is based on energy of character. A strong mind always hopes, and has always cause to hope, because it knows the mutability of human affairs and how slight a circumstance may change the whole course of events. Such a spirit, too, rests upon itself, it is not confined to partial views, or to one particular object. And if at last all should be lost, it has saved itself, its own integrity and worth. Hope awakens courage, while despondency is the last of all evils, it is the abandonment of good, the giving up of the battle of life with dead nothingness. He who can implant courage in the human soul is the best physician. [ Von Knebel (German), Translated by Mrs. Austin ]