English for Students

Literal meaning.

A version of this saying was used, and probably coined, by Adlai Stevenson (1900-65) in praise of Eleanor Roosevelt - in an address to the United Nations General Assembly in 1962:

"She would rather light candles than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world."

Darkness has long been a metaphor for ignorance or evil. The Bible contains hundreds of references to darkness, referring either to the period of ignorance before the realization of faith (i.e. prior to 'seeing the light'), death, or to the Devil (The Prince of Darkness). For example, in Romans 13:

13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.