Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get

“Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get” is a Spanish proverb presented in English translation, and its placement turns a concise counsel of accommodation into a frame for the pressures that follow. It proposes not that desire has been fulfilled, but that people may redirect their affections toward what remains attainable.

Wording and Form

The proverb first appears in Spanish: “Pues no podemos haber aquello que queremos, queramos aquello que podremos.” It is then translated as “Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get.” The balanced clauses move from inability to choice: the first acknowledges a limit, while the second makes a deliberate response to it. Repeating “what” links the unattainable and the available without pretending they are the same.

Placement and Narrative Context

The saying stands at the opening of a chapter that shifts from the private and professional pressures surrounding Lydgate to a wider political landscape. He is safely married and has the hospital under his command, yet he feels himself struggling for Medical Reform against Middlemarch. The proverb’s counsel therefore enters a narrative in which security in one sphere does not dissolve conflict in another.

The chapter widens its focus from Lydgate’s effort to the national struggle for political reform. As Lord John Russell’s measure is debated in the House of Commons, Middlemarch becomes politically animated, and the local definition of parties begins to change. The proverb’s movement from frustrated wanting to adaptive choice thus introduces a community facing circumstances larger than any one individual’s plans.

Meaning in the Novel

The maxim’s second half can sound practical, even consoling: when a desired outcome is unavailable, a person may learn to value what can be had. Yet its placement beside continuing struggles leaves the adjustment unresolved. The available is not necessarily the ideal, and learning to accept it may mean resilience, compromise, or both. Its applicability to Lydgate’s medical campaign and to the town’s political expectations comes from this tension rather than from a claim that either conflict is settled.

The proverb also sits beside forecasts of political disappointment. Some in Middlemarch predict a new election and declare that the Reform Bill will never be carried by the actual Parliament. Will Ladislaw offers this prospect to Mr. Brooke as a reason to be glad that he has not yet tested his strength at the hustings. In that context, the maxim does not promise that circumstances will bend to desire; it gives the chapter a pointed vocabulary for living with uncertainty and recalibrating expectation.