Pt. I line 416.
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
2000s, 2007, Virginia Tech Prayer Vigil (April 2007)
“It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.”
Book IV, ch. 27.
Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769)
“For it would be better to die once and for all than to suffer pain for all one's life.”
κρεῖσσον γὰρ εἰσάπαξ θανεῖν
ἢ τὰς ἁπάσας ἡμέρας πάσχειν κακῶς.
Variant translation by John Stuart Blackie (1850):
"Life and life's sorrows? Once to die is better
Than thus to drag sick life."
Source: Prometheus Bound, lines 750–751
“It is better to suffer, than to do, wrong.”
The Sayings of the Wise (1555), p. 164
Russell v. The Mayor of Devon (1788), 1 T. R. 673.
“Better to suffer than to die: that is mankind's motto.”
Plutôt souffrir que mourir,
C'est la devise des hommes.
Book I (1668), fable 16.
Fables (1668–1679)
Variant: Rather suffer than die is man's motto.
The Director, in Ch 10
Brave New World (1932)
“766. Better suffer ill than doe ill.”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“5068. 'Tis better to suffer Wrong, than to do it.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Act 1, sc. 5
No Exit (1944)
