A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

1912 L. STRACHEY Landmarks in French Literature vi. The new spirits had animated the prose of Chateaubriand and the poetry of La ...

NIGHT brings counsel Cf. MENANDER Sententiae no. 222 at night comes counsel to the wise; L. in nocte consilium, in night is coun ...

the law; it is not SPRING until you can plant your foot upon twelve daisies; a STITCH in time saves nine. NO cross, no crown Cro ...

exactly expresses that which I desire to impress on the reader in the following pages. Without the full and perfect use of its f ...

themselves at the moment of visiting their dentist. 2002 Washington Times 9 May C2 All of which is a mere footnote to the longes ...

NO pain, no gain 1577 N. BRETON Works of Young Wit 33 V They must take pain that look for any gayn. 1648 HERRICK Hesperides 298 ...

1794 W. GODWIN Caleb Williams I. viii. Say the word; a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse. 1822 B. MALKIN Gil Blas (rev. ...

nothynge can be tourned into nought. 1605–6 SHAKESPEARE King Lear I. i. 89 Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again. 1818 SCOTT ...

foresight and hindsight NOTHING is for ever 1984 Defense Electronics 144/2 Nothing is forever, and political-military alliances ...

1876 I. BANKS Manchester Man III. xiii. However, there is nothing so bad but it might be worse. 1885 E. J. HARDY How to be Happy ...

TREVOR-ROPER History & Imagination 9 Nothing succeeds like success, and if Hitler had founded his empire.. we can well imagi ...

don’t get SOMETHING for nothing; SOMETHING is better than nothing; the SUN loses nothing by shining into a puddle. notice see LO ...

O When the OAK is before the ash, then you will only get a splash; when the ash is before the oak, then you may expect a soak A ...

Cf. SENECA De Ira II. xiv. nemo regere potest nisi qui et regi, no one can rule unless he can also be ruled. a 1500 tr. T.à Kemp ...

completely ‘off with the old’. 1923 E. V. LUCAS Advisory Ben xxxix. That proverb about being off with the old love is a very sou ...

OLD sins cast long shadows Cf. 1638 SUCKLING Aglaura v. in Plays (1971) 110 Our sins, like to our shadowes, When our day is in i ...

without breaking eggs. 1859 T. P. THOMPSON Audi Alteram Partem II. xc. We are walking upon eggs and.. the omelet will not be mad ...

could not.. go in for law. 1916 JOYCE Portrait of Artist (1967) iv. You must be quite sure, Stephen, that you have a vocation be ...

shut the other openeth. 1620 T. SHELTON tr. Cervantes’ Don Quixote III. vii. Where one door is shut another is opened. 1710 S. P ...

ONE nail drives out another Cf. ARISTOTLE Politics 1314a one nail knocks out another, according to the proverb. a 1250 Ancrene W ...