A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

One DAY honey, one day onion

Arab saying.

1979 A. DUNCAN Money Rush 129 You get all sorts of figures in this country.. one

day honey, another onion. 2000 D. CARMI Samir and Yonatan 90 It’s like the saying,

‘One day honey, one day onion.’ 2003 A. HARTLEY Zanzibar Chest 136 He lived long

enough to be philosophical about the ups and downs and said, ‘One day honey, one day an

onion.’ 2006 M. K. NYDELL Understanding Arabs 102 The world is changeable, one day

honey and the next day onions. (This rhymes in Arabic.) fate and fatalism

day see also ANOTHER day, another dollar; an APPLE a day keeps the doctor away;
BARNABY bright, Barnaby bright, the longest day and the shortest night; BETTER a century
of tyranny than one day of chaos; the BETTER the day, the better the deed; BETTER to live
one day as a tiger.. ; every DOG has his day; feed a DOG for three days and he will remember
your kindness for three years.. ; FAIR and softly goes far in a day; FISH and guests smell after
three days; OTHER times, other manners; ROME was not built in a day; my SON is my son
till he gets him a wife, but my daughter’s my daughter all the days of her life; SUFFICIENT
unto the day is the evil thereof; TOMORROW is another day.

Let the DEAD bury the dead

With allusion to MATTHEW viii. 22 (AV) Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the
dead bury their dead.

1815 L. DOW Hist. Cosmopolite (1859) 340 A religious bigot made a motion to mob

me; but none would second it. A worldling replied to him, ‘Let the dead bury their dead.’

1931 J. S. HUXLEY What dare I Think? vi. Let, then, the dead bury the dead. The task for

us is to rejuvenate ourselves and our subject. 1997 Spectator 8 Nov. 28 There is

something repellent, as well as profoundly unhistorical, about judging the past by the

standards or prejudices of another age. Let the dead bury the dead. death

DEAD men don’t bite

The words put by Plutarch into the mouth of Theodotus, a teacher of rhetoric, advising the
Egyptians to murder Pompey when he came seeking refuge in Egypt after his defeat at

Pharsalia in 48 BC: PLUTARCH Pompeius lxxvii. a dead man does not bite.
Cf. ERASMUS Adages III. vi. mortui non mordent, the dead do not bite.