two wrongs don't make a right

English

Proverb

two wrongs don't make a right

1. (ethics) A wrongful action is not a morally appropriate way to correct or cancel a previous wrongful action.
   • 1915, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 15, in The Highgrader:

     "But when it comes to taking what belongs to another—well, a thief is a thief. . . . After all, two wrongs don't make a right, do they?"

   • 2006 April 9, Clifton Brown, “Boxing: Mayweather Is Crowned, but not without a Fight”, in New York Times, retrieved 17 June 2009:

     "Late in the fight, Roger told me Zab was going to do something dirty, and he did it," Mayweather said after the fight. "I didn't return it, because two wrongs don't make a right."

   • 2023 May 31, Barry Doe, “A potential downside of ticket reform needs consideration”, in RAIL, number 984, page 58:

     I have no doubt that while the industry loses a great deal of revenue owing to fraudulent travel, it probably more than makes up for it by allowing journey planners to charge too much for journeys - and two wrongs don't make a right.

Antonyms

• two wrongs make a right

Translations

a wrongful action is not a morally appropriate way to correct or cancel a previous wrongful action

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 冤冤相報永無完了／冤冤相报永无完了 (yuānyuānxiāngbào yǒng wú wánliǎo)

• Esperanto: du eraroj ne faras rajton
• Hungarian: (paraphrasis) az egyik fél vétsége nem teszi a másik vétségét semmissé
• Italian: due torti non fanno una ragione
• Polish: dwa zła nie czynią dobra (literally: two evils don't make good)
• Portuguese: dois erros não fazem um acerto
• Spanish: el fin no justifica los medios
• Swedish: två fel gör inte ett rätt

See also

• an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
• tu quoque
• whataboutism