he passes the end of his life without suffering grief; OVID Metamorphoses iii. 135 dicique
beatus Ante obitum nemo .. debet, nobody should be called blessed before his death.
1545 R. TAVERNER tr. Erasmus’ Adages (ed. 2) 53V Salon aunsered kynge Cresus,
that no man could be named happy, tyl he had happely and prosperouslye passed the
course of his lyfe. 1565 NORTON & SACKVILLE Gorboduc III. i. Oh no man happie, till
his ende be seene. 1603 J. FLORIO tr. Montaigne’s Essays I. xviii. We must exspect of
man the latest day, Nor e’er he die, he’s happie, can we say. 1891 Times 5 Dec. 9 Call no
man happy till he dies is the motto .. suggested by the career of Dom Pedro [emperor of
Brazil]. 1967 C. S. FORESTER Hornblower & Crisis 163 ‘Call no man happy until he is
dead.’.. He was seventy-two, and yet there was still time for this dream.. to change to a
nightmare. good fortune; happinesshappy see also happy is the BRIDE that the sun shines on; happy is the COUNTRY which
has no history; a DEAF husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple; happy’s the
WOOING that is not long a-doing.
HARD cases make bad lawDifficult cases cause the clarity of the law to be obscured by exceptions and strained
interpretations.
1854 G. HAYES in W. S. Holdsworth Hist. English Law (1926) IX. 423 A hard case.
But hard cases make bad law. 1945 W. S. CHURCHILL in Hansard (Commons) 12 June
1478 Well, of course, hard cases do not make good laws. 1991 Times 17 Sept. 29 Hard
cases not only make bad law. They also create bad feeling between judges. 2001
Spectator 21 July 18 Hard cases make bad law, no doubt, and maybe bad policy, but this
case is far from unique. law and lawyers; rules, generalHARD words break no bonesA terser statement of the sentiment in STICKS and stones may break my bones, but words
will never hurt me. Cf. c 1450 Towneley Play of Noah (EETS) 1. 380 Thise grete wordis shall
not flay me.
1697 G. MERITON Yorkshire Ale (ed. 3) 84 Foul words break neay Banes. 1806 H.
H. BRACKENRIDGE Gazette Publications 250 Hard words, and language break nae
bane. 1814 G. MORRIS Letter 18 Oct. (1889) II. xlix. These .. are mere words—hard