Better working/to work for free Better to correct Better to have gold than silver You can choose the gerund or infinitive but the latter is better when talking in the abstract

"Better working free than being idle" -- this sounds a bit strange to me. Did you mean, "better working for free than being idle" ? If you meant that it is better to be a free person who works than it is to be an idle person then that is true, but does not fit with the "better A than B" locution. Usually when using "better A than B" both options are not ideal but one is a bit better for some reason. For this same reason, "better gold than silver" is also strange because gold is obviously better than silver and might very well be ideal. Just like it is better to work than to be idle. At this point, you might point out that "safe" is obviously better than "sorry". However the implication here is that you are choosing between two options: one that is "safe" or low risk, and only somewhat rewarding and another that has the potential to be highly rewarding, but is very risky and may go wrong, which would cause you to be "sorry". As you can see, neither situation is ideal but one is a little bit better than the other. "better correct some of my phrases exactly than correct all of them carelessly" You should use "carefully" or "meticulously" instead of "exactly". Correcting something "exactly" is not a turn of phrase in English. It isn't grammatically incorrect, it just sounds non-native. The other phrases seem fine to me.

Better late than never. What do you mean the best way ? These sentences are in their best condition.