In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man is King

In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man is King Definition

In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man is King.

• Among a group of Inadequate people, one needs only be slightly less inadequate to rise above the group.
• In a selection of terrible choices, the least terrible is by default the best.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man is King Examples

• Ted is pretty bad at Basketball. But it doesn’t stop him from beating his son’s classmates 4 on 1. It probably helps that they’re all in 4th grade and he’s the only one that can teach the hoop. Sounds like that saying about the one- eyed king in the valley of the blind.
• In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king. All these college applicants have a degree but no work experience. You might not have a degree but your work experience could be what puts you on top!

Quotes

In a blind town, the one-eyed man is king

Ken Harrelson

He that has one eye is a prince among those that have none.

Thomas Fuller

In the Land of the Blind, the One-eyed Man is King Origin

Literary Origin

in regione caecorum rex est luscus / in the country of the blind, one-eyed man is king.

Desiderius Erasmus, Adagia, 1500

The Adagia is an ancient text, a collection of Greek and Latin proverbs. The text was written by Dutch Humanist Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus and published around 1500 in Paris. Written in Latin the proverb is still almost identical to how it’s used today.

Spiritual Origin

בשוק סמייא צווחין לעווירא סגי נהור / In the street of the blind, the one-eyed man is called the Guiding Light

Genesis Rabbah, 300-500 CE

A very early and similar proverb to our idiom appears in the Genesis Rabbah. The Genesis Rabbah is an ancient text of Judaism and an interpretation of the Book of Genesis used for Rabbi’s preachings. This could likely have inspired the proverb in Erasmus’ Adagia.