What it means is that it is better to take even the smallest of actions to remedy a situation, rather than do nothing, and curse your misery.

Sometimes, when you are in the deep depths of a bad situation, it’s hard to even think to light the candle, but I have found that the proverb is absolutely true. Even something as small and insignificant as getting out and taking a ten minute walk to help clear your head can be the candle you light for yourself.

I think it’s doubly true when we seek to help others. I have a friend who wanted to donate to charity for a long time (I am talking years and years), but she never did it because she felt that what she could afford was too small an amount. I finally convinced her to write a check for $5 to the charity of her choice. She kept saying that no organization can do anything with $5, but I finally pointed out to her that that may be true, but if 1000 people like her contribute that $5, then the organization can certainly find a use for the resulting $5000. She finally learned how to “light a candle”, and now she donates what she can, however small the sum, to a charity that can use whatever they can get.

So light candles when you can. It’s a much better way to live 😉

There’s a Chinese proverb that says it well.
“It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”
You are that candle, go out now and change the world … one word or action at a time.

RE:
what does the proverb "better to light a candle than to curse the darkness" mean?

Forget about your sadness, and find something to be happy about. Forget about your failures, and aim to succeed. Forget about your ignorance, and learn something. focusing on the deficiency of something, does not establish its abundence. cultivation of the positive requires the attention we waste focusing on the negative. don’t concern yourself with how bad the problem is… find a solution. and just like the tiniest flicker of light can fill up even the darkest room, the smallest solution can solve the biggest problem.

Rather than to do nothing and complain about things.

paraphrase it: it’s better to get a job than whine about being broke; it’s better to make a sandwich than to cry about being hungry; it’s better to turn on the friggin’ lights than to complain about sitting in the dark…