As good sit still as rise up and fall.
Meaning: Futile effort yields no better outcome than patient acceptance when circumstances are beyond your control.
Origin: Recorded in A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, an undated collection published in London by Whittaker & Co. around 1880 and credited to Thomas Preston. Its earlier history hasn't been traced.
More proverbs about Challenge
- Put a snake in your bosom, and when it is warm it will sting you. — Harboring someone you know to be dangerous, once comfortable, will inevitably betray your…
- Better be ill spoken of by one before all, than by all before one. — Public criticism from a single person is preferable to private gossip spreading through m…
- He that will steal an egg will steal an ox. — Small moral breaches signal willingness to commit greater crimes when opportunity and sta…
- He that will steal a pin will steal a better thing. — Small moral compromises create a slippery slope toward committing greater wrongs.
- Little sticks kindle the fire, but great ones put it out. — Small initial efforts build momentum, while overwhelming force can extinguish fragile pro…
- He that will not go over the stile must be thrust through the gate. — Stubbornness in resisting one path merely ensures forced submission through a harder, mor…
From our tongue twisters
- Ular melingkar-lingkar di atas pagar pak Umar. — A rolling 'l / r / ling' drill that loops like the snake it describes.
- ยักษ์ใหญ่ไล่ยักษ์เล็ก (Yák yài lâi yák lék) — A tonal 'yak / yai / lai / lek' drill that hops across Thai tones in four short beats.
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.