The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (47 page)

1700
Way of World
II. i.
Say what you will, 'tis better to be left, than never to have lov'd.
1812
Tales
xiv.
Better to love amiss than nothing to have lov'd.
1850
In Memoriam
xxvii. 44
'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all.
1953
Jane & Prudence
i.
One wondered if it was really better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, when poor Prudence seemed to have lost so many times.
1980
Secret Servant
xxviii.
In politics, it is better never to have loved at all than to have loved and lost.
love, blighted

 
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1881
Virginibus Puerisque
iv. 190
To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.
1918
in
English Review
Jan. 29
Love is strictly a travelling. ‘It is better to travel than to arrive,’ somebody has said.
1959
‘’
My Friend Muriel
ii. 83
Remember,.. it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive. The satisfaction lies mainly in the travelling.
1981
Times Literary Supplement
7 Aug. 904
Faculty councils and the like—whose motto seems to be that it is better to travel hopefully than to arrive—.. don't want to hear about
any
change.
1997
Times
9 Aug. 18
Well, as that Edinburgh resident Robert Louis Stevenson noted: ‘To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.’ The trouble with the festival is that it stopped travelling hopefully years ago.
expectation
;
optimism
;
travel

 
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It is better to remain active than to succumb to idleness: used particularly with reference to elderly people. Frequently attributed in its current form to Bishop Richard Cumberland (d. 1718). Cf.
1557
R. EDGEWORTH
Sermons
A1
^V
Better it is to shine with laboure, then to rouste for idlenes;
1598
SHAKESPEARE
Henry IV
,
Pt. 2
I. ii. 206 I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.
1820
in
Life of Wesley
II. xxv.
I had rather wear out than rust out.
1834
Helen
II. xiii.
Helen .. trembled for her health .. but she repeated her favourite maxim—‘Better to wear out, than to rust out.’
1947
Victim
xvii.
It was better to wear out than to rust out, as was often quoted. He was a hard worker himself.
1972
Times
24 May 16
‘A man will rust out sooner'n he'll wear out’ is one of his oft-repeated maxims.
action and inaction
;
old age

 
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