“As it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion; it is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.”
No. 79 (18 December 1750)
The Rambler (1750–1752)
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Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784Related quotes
“It is better to suffer, than to do, wrong.”
The Sayings of the Wise (1555), p. 164
“5068. 'Tis better to suffer Wrong, than to do it.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.”
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
“Weep not for me: suffering, as I do, unjustly, I am in a happier case than my murderers.”
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.
“It is surely better to be wronged than to do wrong.”
In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 175
General sources
“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)
Source: Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence (1996), p. 13
