It is more painful to do nothing than something.
Meaning: Inaction breeds regret and anxiety; taking action—even imperfect action—relieves the torment of helpless waiting.
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
- When old age is evil, youth can learn no good. — A corrupt elder corrupts the next generation; moral decay flows downward through families…
- It's ill healing an old sore. — Reopening past wounds—whether emotional or relational—creates fresh damage harder to reso…
- Pain is forgotten where gain follows. — Suffering endured becomes insignificant once its hardship yields profitable or valuable r…
- Great pain and little gain make a man soon weary. — Disproportionate effort against meager returns exhausts resolve faster than any physical…
- Pains are the wages of ill-pleasures. — Suffering naturally follows from indulgences that ignore consequences or moral bounds.
- On painting and fighting look aloof off. — Maintaining distance reveals flaws invisible up close; premature judgment spoils both art…
From our idioms
- keep one's nose to the grindstone — To work hard without rest.
- knee-high to a grasshopper — Very young.
- laugh all the way to the bank — To be proved right or successful in the face of scorn, particularly as regards money.