such naive faith in the Deity. 1996 American Spectator Mar. 56 But as Laurence Sterne
was wont to remind us, the Lord tempers the wind for the shorn lamb. There were bars.
providence; troubleGod see also ALL things are possible with God; EVERY man for himself, and God for us
all; MAN proposes, God disposes; MAN’S extremity is God’s opportunity; the MILLS of God
grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; the NEARER the church, the farther from God;
PROVIDENCE is always on the side of the big battalions; the ROBIN and the wren are God’s
cock and hen; TAKE the goods the gods provide; TRUST in God but tie your camel; put your
TRUST in God, and keep your powder dry; the VOICE of the people is the voice of God; a
WHISTLING woman and a crowing hen are neither fit for God nor men; also GODS,
HEAVEN.
godliness see CLEANLINESS is next to godliness.Whom the GODS love die youngCf. MENANDER Dis Exapaton fragment 4 (Sandbach)
he whom the gods love dies young; PLAUTUS Bacchides 1. 817 quem di diligunt, Adolescens
moritur, he whom the gods favour, dies young.
1546 W. HUGHE Troubled Man’s Medicine B8V Most happy be they and best
belouid of god, that dye whan they be young. 1553 T. WILSON Art of Rhetoric 40 V
Whom god loueth best, those he taketh sonest. 1651 G. HERBERT Jacula Prudentum no.
1094 Those that God loves, do not live long. 1821 BYRON Don Juan IV. xii. ‘Whom the
gods love die young,’ was said of yore, And many deaths do they escape by this. 1972 A.
PRICE Colonel Butler’s Wolf xx. ‘Whom the gods love die young,’ the war taught us that.
death; youthThe GODS send nuts to those who have no teethSaid of opportunities or pleasures which come too late to be enjoyed. Cf. Fr. le pain vient á
qui les dents faillent, bread comes to those who lack teeth.
1929 American Speech IV. 463 God gives us nuts to crack when we no longer have
teeth. 1967 RIDOUT & WITTING English Proverbs Explained 68 The gods send nuts to
those who have no teeth. In this life we either have too little of what we do want, or too
much of what we don’t want or can’t use. 2000 ‘C. AIRD’ Little Knell (2001) xiv. 161