A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

1962 Adlai Stevenson in New York Times 8 Nov. 34 She [Eleanor Roosevelt] would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world. 2000 Straits Times (online ed.) 26 Aug. He is certainly one who believes it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. 2002 Spectator 12 Jan. 26 A fortnight ago, protesters.. wound their way on a candlelit walk through deep snow from the forest up into the citadel. ‘There is an English saying,’ one of them.. told me. ‘It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.’ "action and inaction

BETTER to live one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep
Recorded as the view of Tipu Sahib c 1750-99, sultan of Mysore in India; see quot. 1800.

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  1800 A. BEATSON View of Origin and Conduct of War with Tippoo Sultaun x. 153 ‘In this world I would rather live two days like a tiger, than two hundred years like a sheep.’ 1997 Daily Telegraph (online ed.) 8 Mar. The title of Anne Haverty’s novel [ One Day as a Tiger] derives from an old Tibetan proverb: ‘It is better to have lived one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep. "action and inaction; boldness
  

BETTER to marry than to burn
With allusion to I CORINTHIANS vii. 8-9 (AV) I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

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  1911 G. B. SHAW Getting Married 116 St Paul’s reluctant sanction of marriage; .. his contemptuous ‘better to marry than to burn’ is only out of date in respect of his belief that the end of the world was at hand and that there was therefore no longer any population question. 1973 J. PORTER Murder with Dover 58 ‘You didn’t approve?’ Miss Marsh pursed her lips. ‘We are told it is better to marry than to burn,’ she said. ‘And he could have done worse, I suppose.’ 2000 Washington Times 15 Nov. E12 (Herb & Jamaal comic strip) [T]hey say,.. ‘It is better to marry than to burn’.. But I’ll tell ya, among the things they say, what I’m most curious about is.. who are ‘they’? ■ marriage