Prevention is better than cure

Posted by ESC on February 27, 2009 at 23:05

In Reply to: Prevention is better than cure posted by Eva Varady on February 27, 2009 at 20:59:

: I would like to know, that what does the "Prevention is better than cure" mean? Where does it come from? What is it's origin?

Taking care of your teeth through good hygiene and regular dental care is better than having to replace your natural teeth at $1,000 a pop.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It's more prudent to head off a disaster beforehand than to deal with it after it occurs. The proverb has been traced back to 'De Legibus' (c. 1240) by English Jurist Henry De Bracton (d. 1268). First attested in the United States in 'Documentary History of Maine Containing Baxter Manuscripts ..." From Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman . Another reference dates the idea back to the Roman poet Persius (A.D.c 58), "Meet the malady on its way." The first English version, "Preuention is so much better than healing beause it saues the labor of being sicke," Thomas Adams's "Works" 1630. The English Satirist Thomas C. Haliburton repeated the current version in "The Clockmaker" or "The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville," 1837." From Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New; by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993). Page 144.

Another way of saying it - a stitch in time saves nine. www.phrases.org.uk meanings a-stitch-in-time.html Or as Barney Fife would say - nip it in the bud.
Barney Fife: Well, today's eight-year-olds are tomorrow's teenagers. I say this calls for action and now. Nip it in the bud. First sign of youngsters going wrong, you've got to nip it in the bud.
Andy Taylor: I'm going to have a talk with them. What else do you want me to do?
Barney Fife: Well, don't just mollycoddle them.
Andy Taylor: I won't.
Barney Fife: Nip it. You go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline and you'll find every one of them is in favor of bud-nipping.

See: the meaning and origin of the proverb 'a stitch in time saves nine'.