A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

fresh see don’t THROW out your dirty water until you get in fresh.

Friday see Monday’s CHILD is fair of face.

A FRIEND in need is a friend indeed

A friend in need is one who helps when one is in need or difficulty. Cf. EURIPIDES

Hecuba 1. 1226 for in adversity good friends are
most clearly seen; ENNIUS Scaenica 210 (Vahlen) amicus certus in re incerta cernitur, a sure
friend is known in unsure times.

c 1035 Durham Proverbs (1956) 10 Æt thearfe man sceal freonda cunnian [friend

shall be known in time of need]. a 1400 Titus & Vespasian (1905) 98 I shal the save

When tyme cometh thou art in nede; Than ogh men frenshep to shewe in dede. a 1449

LYDGATE Minor Poems (EETS) II. 755 Ful weele is him that fyndethe a freonde at

neede. 1678 J. RAY English Proverbs (ed. 2) 142 A friend in need is a friend indeed.

1773 R. GRAVES Spiritual Quixote II. VIII. xx. (heading) A Friend in Need is a Friend

indeed. 1866 C. READE Griffith Gaunt III. xv. You came to my side when I was in

trouble.. .A friend in need is a friend indeed. 1985 D. WILLIAMS Wedding Treasure

viii. He never felt quite right about calling up scripture—at least not in private. ‘Friend in

need is a friend indeed,’ he added. That was better. adversity; friends

friend see also the BEST of friends must part; the ENEMY of my enemy is my friend;
LEND your money and lose your friend; if you have to LIVE in the river, it is best to be
friends with the crocodile; SAVE us from our friends; SHORT reckonings make long friends.

The FROG in the well knows nothing of the sea

Japanese proverb, meaning that one should be aware of the limitations of one’s own
experience. Cf. Chinese the frog in the well cannot talk of Heaven.

1918 E. J. BANFIELD Tropic Days 189 Among coastal blacks—all of whom may be

said to be fishermen—some are ardent devotees to the sea. Others of the same camp

restrict themselves to unsensational creeks and lagoons. The frog in the well knows

nothing of the salt sea, and its aboriginal prototype contents himself with milder and

generally less remunerative kind of sport than that in which his bolder cousins revel.

1976 R. STORRY ‘Soldiers of the Showa Empire’ in Pacific Affairs vol. 49 (spring) 105

Japanese officers could be forgiven for supposing that they were the wave of the future.