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the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must

the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must proverb: the weak cannot resist the decisions of the strong; power, not morality, decides the outcome of any dispute.

Proverb

the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must

  1. (chiefly international relations) The weak cannot resist the decisions of the strong; power, not morality, decides the outcome of any dispute.
    • Bitter is the necessity of it. It knows no law. In the world the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.1924 November, Arthur W. Wheen, “Two Masters”, in The London Mercury, volume 11, number 61, page 35
    • But the present organisation of society, national and international, works on the principle that the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.1970, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Radhakrishnan: Selected Writings on Philosophy, Religion and Culture, →ISBN, page 48

Forms of the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must

alternative formthe strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must

Origin of the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must

Calque of Ancient Greek δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν (dunatà dè hoi proúkhontes prássousi kaì hoi astheneîs xunkhōroûsin) in Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War 5.89 (the Melian dialogue). Thucydides presents the sentence as part of an ultimatum from Athens to the city of Melos demanding tribute. The Melians having rejected the order, their city was taken by force and their population enslaved and massacred by the Athenians. The following year, Athens suffered a serious defeat that lead to its conquest by Sparta. The wording that has become standard is from Richard Crawley’s 1874 translation.

Questions about the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must

What does the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must mean?
The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must means the weak cannot resist the decisions of the strong; power, not morality, decides the outcome of any dispute.
What part of speech is the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must?
The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must is a proverb.

Words near the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must in the dictionary

  1. the straw that broke the camel's back
  2. the Street
  3. the streets are paved with gold
  4. The Strip
  5. the stroke that broke the camel's back
  6. the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must
  7. the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must
  8. the struggle is real
  9. the stuffing out of
  10. The Stukeleys
  11. the sun is over the yardarm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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