Anything is better than stagnation.

Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong

5068. 'Tis better to suffer Wrong, than to do it.

'Tis better to have tried in vain,
Sincerely striving for a goal,
Than to have lived upon the plain
An idle and a timid soul.<p>'Tis better to have fought and spent
Your courage, missing all applause,
Than to have lived in smug content
And never ventured for a cause.<p>For he who tries and fails may be
The founder of a better day;
Though never his the victory,
From him shall others learn the way.

I believe order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. On the whole I think that knowledge is preferable to ignorance, and I am sure that human sympathy is more valuable than ideology. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must try to learn from history.

Death is better than a vegetating ignorant life; it is better to die on the battle-field than to live a life of defeat.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

766. Better suffer ill than doe ill.

It is better to suffer, than to do, wrong.

Sometimes dead is better

it is better to act and repent than not to act and regret.

Once man was tossed about helplessly and incessantly by the wind that blew through him — now the toughest of all plants is more sensitive, more easily moved than he. In other words, death is better than life, nothing is better than anything. Nor is this a silly adolescent pessimism peculiar to Housman, as so many critics assure you. It is better to be dead than alive, best of all never to have been born — said a poet approvingly advertised as seeing life steadily and seeing it whole; and if I began an anthology of such quotations there it would take me a long time to finish. The attitude is obviously inadequate and just as obviously important.

Was it better to die in the illusion of sunshine and warmth or face death in a cold darkness of reality? Was it better to die in happy ignorance or terrified knowledge? The answer, if you’re a Londoner, is that it’s better not to die at all.