What cannot be cured must be endured.
Meaning: Accept hardships beyond your control rather than waste energy resisting the inevitable.
Origin: Recorded in English from the late 16th century, with a forerunner in Langland's Piers Plowman (1377): when must comes forward, there is nothing for it but to suffer. It counsels patience with the unavoidable, and has a cheerier cousin in "make a virtue of necessity."
More proverbs about Perseverance
- Never venture out of your depth until you can swim. — Avoid situations beyond your capability until you've mastered the necessary skills.
- Desert and reward seldom keep company. — Virtue without recognition tests whether you act from integrity or merely for praise.
- One must sometimes hold a candle to the devil. — Pragmatic compromise with unsavory people or situations may be necessary to achieve impor…
- 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…
From our idioms
- fall into place — To become suddenly clear and fully understood when separate elements finally align.
- raise hell — To cause a major disturbance or create considerable trouble and chaos.
- flavor of the week — A person or thing that receives intense attention or popularity for a brief period before…