A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

GO further and fare worse

1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs II. iv. G3V You rose on your right syde

here ryght. And might haue gon further, and haue faren wurs. 1738 SWIFT Polite

Conversation ii. 58 Come, Sir John, you may go further, and fare worse. 1848

THACKERAY Vanity Fair iv. She’s just as rich as most of the girls who came out of

India. I might go farther and fare worse. 1938 G. GREENE in Spectator 12 Aug. 271 He

would have said, perhaps, with his plainness and simplicity and the smirk of satisfaction

you see on his portrait, that one can fare further and fare worse. content and discontent

go see also EASY come, easy go; LIGHT come, light go; QUICKLY come, quickly go; he
that would go to SEA for pleasure, would go to hell for a pastime; SELL in May and go away;
never let the SUN go down on your anger; don’t go near the WATER until you learn how to
swim; the WEAKEST go to the wall; many go out for WOOL and come home shorn; also
GOES.

You cannot serve GOD and Mammon

Quoting MATTHEW vi. 24 (AV) Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is the
Aramaic word for ‘riches’, taken by medieval writers as the proper name of the devil of
covetousness. Now used generally of wealth regarded as an evil influence.

1531 W. BONDE Pilgrimage of Perfection (rev. ed.) III. vii. No person may serue

god eternall and also the Mammonde of iniquite: whiche is golde and syluer and other

richesse. 1860 TROLLOPE Framley Parsonage II. i. Lady Lufton.. would say of Miss

Dunstable that it was impossible to serve both God and Mammon. 1982 P. MCGINLEY

Goosefoot v. The city and the country repel each other like oil and water. And like God

and Mammon, they can’t be served at the same time by the same person. money

Where GOD builds a church, the Devil will build a chapel

Quot. 1942 cites the version of the saying found in George Herbert’s Outlandish Proverbs
(1640) no. 674.

1560 T. BECON Works I. 516V For commonly, where so ever God buildeth a church,

the Deuyll wyl builde a Chappell iuste by. 1701 DEFOE True-born Englishman 4

Wherever God erects a House of Prayer, The Devil always builds a Chapel there: And

‘twill be found upon Examination, The latter has the largest Congregation. 1903 G. H.