“Two things greater
Than all things are;
And the first is love
And the second is war.”

The Ballad of the King's Jest, Stanza 4
Other works

Pilgrim’s Regress 59
The Pilgrim's Regress (1933)

Brown, J. & Tucker, B.B. (1986). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul. Macmillan: New York. ISBN 0-02517-430-4

Che lasciar quel che s'ama, e peggio assai
Che disiarlo, e non averlo mai.
XVII, 6
Rifacimento of Orlando Innamorato

Life and Human Nature.
Afterthoughts (1931)

Variant: if you love two people at the same time, choose the second. Because if you really loved the first one, you wouldn't have fallen for the second.

"The Palace of the End" (2003)
Context: There are two rules of war that have not yet been invalidated by the new world order. The first rule is that the belligerent nation must be fairly sure that its actions will make things better; the second rule is that the belligerent nation must be more or less certain that its actions won't make things worse. America could perhaps claim to be satisfying the first rule (while admitting that the improvement may be only local and short term). It cannot begin to satisfy the second.

p, 125
Researches on the effects of bloodletting... (1836)

As quoted in Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light (2007) by Brian Kolodiejchuk
2000s