Devil Sick would be a Monk (The)

“Dœmon languebat, monachus bonus esse volebat;

Sed cum convaluit, manet ut ante fuit.”

“When the Devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;

When the Devil got well, the devil a monk was he.”

Said of those persons who in times of sickness or danger make pious resolutions, but forget them when danger is past and health recovered.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.