English Proverbs – Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t

Proverb Expansion

The devil is a symbol of wickedness and evil. People are afraid of him. Here the word devil can also mean some danger or problem. When we become familiar with the devil we can know certain peculiarities of his and the nature of his evil work. This will help us to take necessary precautions against his evil work and can thus reduce the dangers to some extent. We may be able to adjust ourselves to his peculiarities to a certain extent and thus to reduce the intensity of danger. But an unknown devil will prove to be more dangerous because we do not know what sort of harm he will bring us. We meet with many difficulties in daily life. A danger or difficulty we have already experienced is less frightening than one we have never known. Since we are familiar with the difficulty, we can always do something to reduce its intensity. But when we face with an unknown danger, we become helpless. This is true in the case of people too. There are people who are very dangerous and we may have to deal with them. But once we are familiar with their ways, we can adjust ourselves with them. So it is better to depend on someone we know despite his faults than on an unknown person who may have less faults.

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English proverbs – Best Quotes – Sayings – Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t

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