Meaning & Analysis
If a condition, illness, or situation has no available solution or remedy, one must learn to tolerate and live with it.
Insights
Stoic Acceptance
The proverb serves as a powerful call for stoic acceptance, advising that emotional and mental energy should be conserved by accepting unchangeable circumstances rather than fighting them fruitlessly.
Pragmatism and Adaptation
It promotes a pragmatic approach to life's challenges, suggesting that wisdom lies in recognizing the limits of one's agency and adapting to reality rather than complaining about it.
Internal Fortitude
On a deeper level, it speaks to the management of internal suffering. Personal flaws, past traumas, or chronic sorrows that cannot be 'cured' must be integrated into one's life with resilience and fortitude.
Philosophical and Historical Roots
This proverb encapsulates a core tenet of Stoic philosophy, which distinguishes between what is within our control and what is not. Its prevalence in 16th and 17th-century literature, including Shakespeare, reflects a cultural emphasis on patience and fortitude as essential virtues for navigating a world with limited medical and social remedies.
Psychological Application
The proverb is a foundational concept in modern psychological therapies like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which teaches that accepting unchangeable realities is crucial for mental well-being. It serves as a cognitive tool to shift focus from fruitless struggle to adaptive coping.
Literary Evolution
Shakespeare's variation, 'What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac'd' (Merry Wives of Windsor), subtly reframes the concept from passive tolerance ('endured') to active, willing acceptance ('embrac'd'), suggesting a more empowered and psychologically sophisticated response to adversity.
Rhetorical Devices
Rhyme
The internal rhyme of 'cured' and 'endured' creates a memorable, poetic quality, making the proverb easy to recall and transmit as a piece of wisdom.
Antithesis and Parallelism
The proverb uses a parallel structure that creates a strong antithesis between the concepts of 'curing' (active remedy) and 'enduring' (passive resilience), effectively framing the two possible responses to affliction.
Passive Voice
The use of the passive voice ('be cured', 'be endured') lends the statement a universal, impersonal authority, presenting it as a general law of life rather than specific advice.
Transcription
Quotations
And cleanly cover that cannot be cured: Such il as is forced mought nedes be endured.
Perin, enough; few words beene alwayes best, Needs must be borne that cannot be redrest.
That which cannot be cured, must with patience be endured.
What we cannot cure, we must endure.
Shakespeare Citations
What cannot be avoided 'Twere childish weakness to lament or fear.
Have patience, gentle Julia. —I must, where is no remedy.
What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac'd.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.