Meaning & Analysis
Even the best or most virtuous things can be misused, corrupted, or turned toward harmful ends.
Insights
Perils of Excess
This proverb highlights that goodness, when misapplied or taken to excess, may turn into its opposite—virtue can decay into vice if not moderated or contextually guided.
Human Fallibility
It implies that no object, idea, or practice is immune to misuse, especially when filtered through flawed or malicious human intentions.
Ambivalence of Power
Symbolically, it speaks to the double-edged nature of power, knowledge, or technology—tools that, depending on use, can serve progress or destruction.
Moral Relativism
It gestures toward the idea that goodness is not absolute but contingent on circumstance and purpose—what benefits in one context may harm in another.
Theological and Ethical Caution
In early modern religious discourse, this idea cautioned against assuming that divine gifts (like reason, beauty, or authority) guaranteed virtue—because even sacred things could become profane through abuse.
Renaissance Humanism and Responsibility
During the Renaissance, the proverb echoed humanist concerns about moral responsibility: humans are stewards, not automatons, and the ethical burden lies in how things are used, not just what they are.
Shakespearean Echoes
Shakespeare invokes this theme often, especially in *Romeo and Juliet*, where the Friar’s reflections mirror the proverb—medicine and poison spring from the same root, their difference lying in use, not substance.
Modern Technological Resonance
In a contemporary context, this wisdom anticipates debates about AI, nuclear energy, and biotechnology—each potentially good, yet profoundly dangerous if misused.
Rhetorical Devices
Universalizing Construction
The phrase 'nothing so good but...' creates an inclusive, all-encompassing judgment, reinforcing the idea’s moral universality and gravity.
Antithesis
The juxtaposition of 'good' and 'abused' establishes a moral contrast that heightens the proverb’s philosophical tension and memorability.
Implicit Irony
The idea that goodness leads to—or at least enables—harm introduces a subtle irony, challenging the assumption that moral value guarantees moral outcome.
Transcription
Quotations
(There is nothing).
There is nothing so good, but by ill using may be made naught.
Ther is nothing but through the mallice of man may be abused.
There is nothing so good but it may be abused.
Yeat things, that of themselues be good, abuse brings out of square.
Mongst all the things which Nature made in wisdome for mans use, Nothing is simply bad, but it from man receives abuse.
(The best things).
(Every thing).
Shakespeare Citations
Nor aught so good but, strain'd from that fair use, Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.
Cross References
- See T. 33, p. 76.
- C668 The corruption of the best is worst.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.