A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

People react in different ways to the same experience. Earlier in other variants; cf. 1623
BACON History of Life and Death (online ed.) In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and
wax melts.

1952 J. F. BENDER Make Your Business Letters Make Friends 220 An approach that

works in one instance may kill a sale in another. Remember the fire that hardens the egg

softens the butter. 1995 D. T. LYKKEN Antisocial Personalities 81 The first day in

school or a first roller-coaster ride will be a pleasurable excitement for some children..

but a terrifying and destructive experience for other children;.. the same fire that melts

the butter hardens the egg. 2000 D. DE ARMAS WILSON Cervantes, Novel, and New

World 131 The same fire that melts the butter hardens the egg. The same books that craze

Don Quixote lead Dorotea.. out of a wilderness of seductions and betrayal. experience

fire see also a BURNT child dreads the fire; DIRTY water will quench fire; FIGHT fire
with fire; you should KNOW a man seven years before you stir his fire; if you PLAY with fire
you get burnt; no SMOKE without fire; THREE removals are as bad as a fire.

FIRST catch your hare

Commonly thought to originate in the recipe for hare soup in Mrs Glasse’s Art of Cookery
(1747) or in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1851), but not found there (see
quot. 1896). Similar in sentiment to CATCHING’S before hanging. Cf. c 1300 BRACTON De
Legibus Angliae IV. xxi. vulgariter dicitur, quod primo opportet cervum capere, & postea cum
captus fuerit illum excoriare, it is commonly said that one must first catch the deer, and
afterwards, when he has been caught, skin him.

1801 Spirit of Farmers’ Museum 55 How to dress a dolphin, first catch a dolphin.

1855 THACKERAY Rose & Ring xiv. ‘To seize wherever I should light upon him—’

‘First catch your hare!’.. exclaimed his Royal Highness. 1896 Daily News 20 July 8 The

familiar words, ‘First catch your hare,’ were never to be found in Mrs. Glasse’s famous

volume. What she really said was, ‘Take your hare when it is cased [skinned].’ 1984 ‘C.

AIRD’ Harm’s Way iii. Sloan took his reply straight from the pages of an early cookery

book. .. ‘First, catch your hare.’ ways and means

FIRST come, first served

Cf. late 13th-cent. Fr. qui ainçois vient au molin ainçois doit moldre, he who comes first to
the mill may grind first.