A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

GOD sends meat, but the Devil sends cooks

1542 A. BORDE Dietary of Health xi. It is a common prouerbe, God may sende a

man good meate, but the deuyll may sende an euyll coke to dystrue it. c 1607 T.

DELONEY Thomas of Reading B3 God sends meat, and the diuel sends cookes. 1738

SWIFT Polite Conversation ii. 155 This Goose is quite raw: Well, God sends Meat, but

the Devil sends Cooks. 1822 SCOTT Nigel III. iii. That homely proverb that men taunt

my calling with,—’God sends good meat, but the devil sends cooks.’ 1979 Country Life

13 Sept. 807 Another old saying.. that God sends good meat but the devil sends the cooks.

food and drink

GOD’s in his heaven; all’s right with the world The standard form is an expression of
satisfaction (see quot. 1841), which has now largely replaced the consolatory God is where he
was.

1530 J. PALSGRAVE L’éclaircissement de la Langue Française 213 Neuer dispayre

man, god is there as he was. 1612 T. SHELTON tr. Cervantes’ Don Quixote I. IV. iii. God

is in heaven. 1678 J. RAY English Proverbs (ed. 2) 147 God is where he was. Spoken to

encourage People in any distress. 1841 R. BROWNING Works (1970) 327 The snail’s on

the thorn: God’s in his heaven—All’s right with the world. 1906 R. KIPLING Puck of

Pook’s Hill 240 Cheer up, lad. .. God’s where He was. 1928 E. WAUGH Decline & Fall I.

v. When you’ve been in the soup as often as I have, it gives you a sort of feeling that

everything’s for the best, really. You know, God’s in His heaven; all’s right with the

world. 1983 P. MORTIMER Handyman xv. When she heard his car draw up, on the dot of

seven, it was as though she had been injected with a great feeling of calm, a reassurance

that God was in his heaven and all [was] right with her world. content and discontent

GOD tempers the wind to the shorn lamb

God mercifully ensures that misfortune does not overwhelm the weak or helpless. The
phrase to temper the wind (to the shorn lamb) is also common. Cf. 1594 H. ESTIENNE
Premices 47 ces termes, Dieu mesure le froid á la brebis tondue, sont les propres termes du
prouerbe, these terms, God measures the cold to the shorn sheepe, are the correct terms of the
proverb.

1640 G. HERBERT Outlandish Proverbs no. 867 To a close shorne sheep, God gives

wind by measure. 1768 STERNE Sentimental Journey II. 175 How she had borne it.. she

could not tell—but God tempers the wind, said Maria, to the shorn lamb. 1933 V.

BRITTAIN Testament of Youth I. ii. There is an unduly optimistic proverb which declares

that God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb. My subsequent history was hardly to justify