Re: FTR:

[Paul Eggert]

On 4/28/20 10:58 PM, Akim Demaille wrote:
> I think
> the cure is worse than the disease, as some "great" leader loves to
> put it...

I know this is irrelevant but I tried to chase down the first use of the phrase
"cure is worse than the disease". Here's the earliest I found in Google Books:

"Foure rules were offered by the Reverend Brother, as tending to Unity, and to
the healing of the preſent Controverſies about Church-Government.  But in truth
his cure is worſe than the diſeaſe : and inſtead of making any agreement, he is
like to have his hand againſt every man,and every mans hand againſt him."

This quote is from:

George Gillespie. A Brotherly Examination of ſome paſſages of Mr. Colemans late
Sermon upon Iob 11.20. London: Robert Bostock (1645).


So even back then the phrase was already being used in its political (not
medical) sense as part of a political controversy - which means in this respect
we're no better off now than our ancestors were in 1645.