One must sometimes hold a candle to the devil.
Meaning: Pragmatic compromise with unsavory people or situations may be necessary to achieve important goals.
Origin: Medieval worshippers lit candles before the images of saints to honor them. To hold a candle to the devil was to show the same deference to evil — serving or flattering a wicked person for safety or gain. The proverb admits that this is sometimes the price of getting by.
More proverbs about Perseverance
- Diligence is the mother of good fortune. — Consistent hard work creates the opportunities that appear to others as mere luck or chan…
- He who would enjoy his friend's dinner should not look into the kitchen. — Willful ignorance of unpleasant details preserves pleasure in the final result.
- If you wish a thing done, go; if not, send. — Delegating tasks to others risks poor execution; important matters demand your personal a…
- Think of ease, but work on. — Comfort tempts idleness, yet sustained effort alone transforms aspiration into achievemen…
- Tis hard to sail o'er the sea in an egg-shell. — Fragile vessels cannot survive harsh conditions; attempting impossible tasks with inadequ…
- Everything hath an end, and a pudding hath two. — Even desserts that seem endless eventually conclude, and some things finish twice—once ea…
From our tongue twisters
- Um tigre, dois tigres, três tigres tristes triscam trigo num trigal. — A 'tr' cluster drill that adds a sad adjective to make the alliteration worse.
- O papa papava o papo do pipo; o pipo papava o papo do papa. — A perfectly palindromic 'p' construction that reverses meaning when you swap the nouns.
- На дворе трава, на траве дрова. (Na dvore trava, na trave drova.) — A short but nasty 'tr/dr' blend — the consonant clusters that trip up every learner of Ru…