Second thoughts are best.
Meaning: Hasty decisions often falter; pausing to reconsider reveals wiser paths forward.
Origin: From Euripides' tragedy Hippolytus, where the Nurse, having changed her mind about Phaedra's secret love, excuses herself with the observation that among mortals second thoughts are wiser. It has served as a defense of reconsidering ever since.
Equivalents in Italian
- Italian: Il secondo pensiero è il migliore (literally: Second thoughts are best)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Every tide has its ebb. — Periods of decline inevitably follow periods of flourishing; change is the only constant…
- Too far east is west. — Extreme pursuit of one direction eventually leads you backward toward your opposite goal.
- Utility is preferable to grandeur. — Practical usefulness in daily life matters more than impressive but ornamental displays o…
- War is death's feast. — Conflict creates abundant opportunity for mortality, making death thrive where violence s…
- Wedlock is a padlock. — Marriage's binding commitment removes personal freedom and independence once entered.
- Be not weary of well-doing. — Persistent good actions, though exhausting, yield their reward through accumulated virtue…
From our idioms
- Jeux de mains, jeux de vilains — Horseplay ends badly.
- On ne peut être juge et partie — Nobody may rule on a matter in which they have an interest.
- Un jugement de Salomon — A ruling of great wisdom that exposes the truth by testing it.