A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

BETTER a century of tyranny than one day of chaos
Ibn Taymiyyah (or Taimiya) was a fourteenth-century scholar of Damascus; this saying seems to have originated in his Kitab al-Siyasa al-Shar’iya (Book of Divinely Ordered [literally, ‘Sharia’] Politics) written c 1311-15 (see quot. 1966).

• 
  1966 F. RAHMAN Islam 239 Ibn Tamiya immediately follows up the.. alleged Hadith with the quotation, ‘sixty days of an unjust ruler are much better than one night of lawlessness’. 1994 H. MUTALIB Islam in Malaysia 64 Ibn Taymiyyah maintained that it is better to suffer a corrupt leadership for sixty days rather than face one day of chaos and anarchy. 2004 ‘Taking Hostages’ on www.pbs.org 30 Sept. You know there’s a very famous Arab saying that says.. something like 40 years of tyranny, not one day of chaos. And this chaos.. that has engulfed Iraq for the last year and a half is just devastating for the prospects of any future American backed government in Iraq. 2007 posting in Arizona Republic on www.azcentral.com 22 Jan. I wonder if, before waging war against Iraq, President Bush had ever heard the famous Arab saying: ‘Better a century of tyranny than one day of chaos.’ ■ rulers and ruled
  

BETTER a dinner of herbs than a stalled ox where hate is
Herbs here is used in the archaic sense of’plants of which the leaves are used as food’, and a stalled ox is one that is fattened in a stall for slaughter. With allusion to PROVERBS xv. 17 (Geneva (1560) translation, which is closely followed by AV) Better is a dinner of green herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

• 
  1817 S. SMITH Letter 13 Mar. in S. Holland Memoir (1855) II. 138 When you think of that amorous and herbivorous parish of Covent Garden, and compare it with my agricultural benefice, you will say, ‘Better is the dinner of herbs where love is, than the stalled ox,’ etc. etc. 1914 ‘SAKI’ Beasts & Super-Beasts 227 The ox had finished the vase-flowers.. and appeared to be thinking of leaving its rather restricted quarters. .. I forget how the proverb runs. .. Something about ‘better a dinner of herbs than a stalled ox where hate is’. 1979 J. DRUMMOND I saw Him Die viii. Lunch was a silent affair. .. I said, ‘“Better a dinner of herbs than a stalled ox where hate is.” ‘ ■ content and discontent; food and drink; malice