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English
Proverb
the good die young
- Well-regarded people who are morally upright, kind, and beneficent tend to die at a younger age than do most people.
1895, John Kendrick Bangs, chapter 9, in The Idiot:"You'll live," put in Mr. Pedagog, with a chuckle. "The good die young."
1906, E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Malefactor, Book 1, ch. 12:[I]t is the men and women with vices who have ruled the world. The good die young because there is no useful work for them to do.
1930 April 14, “Weyler Well”, in Time, retrieved 10 April 2014:"The good die young," is a favorite, sardonic saying of General Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, Marquess of Tenerife, Grandee of Spain, long famed among U. S. citizens as "Butcher Weyler" because of his ruthless military governorship of Cuba, prime cause of the Spanish-American war (1896-97).
In Madrid last week the doughty "Butcher," now aged 91, arose fully convalescent from a sickness during which Death had been expected hourly for weeks. "Pah!" growled he. "My doctors, my family had no cause for alarm. I had only pneumonia!"
2009 March 28, Anahan O'Connor, Colin Moynihan, “Pregnant Woman Killed When Van Jumps Curb”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 April 2014:A 28-year-old pregnant woman was killed and a second woman was seriously injured on Friday afternoon when a driver, apparently intoxicated and following the women as they walked down a Midtown Manhattan street, lost control of a supermarket maintenance van. . . . “It hasn’t really sunk in,” said Ms. Ramos’s sister. . . . “The good die young,” she said.
Usage notes
- Often used sarcastically or gloomily with the connotation that justice is lacking in the moral order of the world.
Translations
Well-regarded people tend to die at a younger age
See also