Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Accept current suffering to avoid worse consequences later.
- In plain terms
- Put up with small problems to avoid big ones.
- What can you take from it?
- Endure lesser evils to avoid greater ones.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When is submission safe?
- What is a greater evil?
Another view
It risks normalizing abuse or oppression.
More from Phaedrus
That it is unwise to be heedless ourselves while we are giving advice to others, I will show in a few lines.
Permalink to quote #2 No one returns with good will to the place which has done him a mischief.
Permalink to quote #3 Everyone is bound to bear patiently the results of his own example.
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure.
F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald quote #5 'What's the use of dying in a ward surrounded by a lot of groaning and croaking incurables? Wouldn't it be much better to throw a party with that twenty-seven …
Mikhail BulgakovMikhail Bulgakov quote #7 Dear God, who are the whole splendor of things and the sacred stars, but also the cruelty and greed, the treacheries And vileness, insanities and filth and ang…
Robinson JeffersRobinson Jeffers quote #15