“It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.”

Last update Aug. 13, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust." by Samuel Johnson?
Samuel Johnson photo
Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784

Related quotes

Samuel Johnson photo
Pythagoras photo

“It is better to suffer, than to do, wrong.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

The Sayings of the Wise (1555), p. 164

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“5068. 'Tis better to suffer Wrong, than to do it.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Tony Blair photo

“Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.”

Tony Blair (1953) former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Hansard http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo051109/debtext/51109-03.htm#51109-03_spmin10, House of Commons, 6th series, vol. 439, col. 302.
9 November 2005, responding to Charles Kennedy in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions. Blair was referring to the likely defeat in Parliament of additional powers to detain terror suspects without charge, which happened later that day.
2000s

Agis IV photo

“Weep not for me: suffering, as I do, unjustly, I am in a happier case than my murderers.”

Agis IV (-265–-241 BC) King of Sparta

To one of his executioners, whom he noticed weeping, as quoted in Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1844) by WIlliam Smith, p. 73.

Isaac Asimov photo

“It is surely better to be wronged than to do wrong.”

In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 175
General sources

Baltasar Gracián photo

“Better to be cheated by the price than by the merchandise.”

Más vale ser engañado en el precio que en la mercadería.
Maxim 157 (p. 89)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

“The average man is happier in the wrong with a crowd, than he is in the right with only one or two companions.”

Chapman Cohen (1868–1954) British atheist and secularist writer and lecturer

[God and the Universe: Eddington, Jeans, Huxley, & Einstein, 128, 1931, Pioneer Press, https://books.google.com/books?id=QmBHAAAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=happier]

Richelle Mead photo

“If we could manage any sort of trust again… Well. That would make me happier than you can imagine”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Shadow Heir

Related topics