A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Never do EVIL that good may come of it
With allusion to ROMANS iii. 8 (AV) And not.. Let us do evil, that good may come.
□1583 P. STUBBES Anatomie of Abuses K5 We must not doo euil, that good may come of it: yet the lawes in permitting certain reasonable gain to be received for the loane of money lent.. haue not doone much amisse. 1689 G. BULKELEY Letter in Coll. Connecticut Hist. Society (1860) I. 59 If I knew any thing whereby to justify the present proceeding, I should not conceal it; but we must not do evil that good may come of it. 1882 C. M. YONGE Unknown to History II. ix. Walsingham’s agents.. did evil that good might come, thinking Mary’s death alone would ensure them from Pope and Spaniard. 1950 J. CANNAN Murder Included 127 What.. were the ethics? A promise made to a silly child, was it binding? You mustn’t do evil that good may come of it.. but the boy was only fourteen and practically half-witted, and Lisa was an absurd little Quixote. ■ good and evil; ways and means
evil see also a GREAT book is a great evil; IDLENESS is the root of all evil; MONEY is the root of all evil; SEE no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil; SUFFICIENT unto the day is the evil thereof.
Of two EVILS choose the less
Cf. ARISTOTLE Nicomachean Ethics II. ix. 1109a ^{Lpl
-/.и? ;■ rt? .•zif/zHTt? -.71; w ...-ичгwe _must as a second-best course, it is said, take the least of the evils; CICERO De Officiis III. xxix. minima de malis, of evils choose the least.
□c 1385 CHAUCER Troilus & Criseyde II. 470 Of harmes two, the lesse is for to chese. c 1440 Gesta Romanorum (EETS) 10 Of too Evelis the lasse Evill is to be chosyn. 1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs I. v. B2 Of two yls, chose the least while choyse lyth in lot. 1785 J. BOSWELL Journal of Tour to Hebrides 464 ‘O ho! Sir, (said I), you are flying to me for refuge!’.. ‘It is of two evils choosing the least.’ 1891 A. FORBES Barracks, Bivouacs & Battles 187 Either the Turks would make a prisoner of me.. or I must.. take my chance of the Russian fire. .. ‘Of two evils choose the less,’ says the wise proverb. 1975 J. PORTER Package Included Murder xiv. She didn’t want to wake dear Constance, who really needed all the sleep she could get, but if she didn’t.. Miss Jones chose the lesser of two evils. ■ choices}