A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

MAN cannot live by bread alone

With allusion to two biblical passages (both AV): DEUTERONOMY viii. 3 Man doth not
live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man
live; MATTHEW iv. 4 Man shall not live by bread alone.

1875 EMERSON in North American Review May-June 418 Man does not live by

bread alone, but by faith, by admiration, by sympathy. 1927 J. BUCHAN Witch Wood iii.

Man canna live by bread alone, but he assuredly canna live without it. 1973 Galt Toy

Catalogue 35 As the saying goes—Man cannot live by bread alone. food and drink; life

Whatever MAN has done, man may do

There is a similar idea behind 1723 S. CRANSTON in G. S. Kimball Correspondence of
Colonial Governors of Rhode Island (1902) I.9 But as the Proverb is what hath been may be
againe.

1863 C. READE Hard Cash II. xiv. ‘Dark Deeds are written in an unknown tongue

called “Lawyerish” .. ; pick it out if you can.’ ‘Whatever man has done man may do,’ said

Dr. Sampson stoutly. 1910 ‘SAKI’ Reginald in Russia 14 I fell in love.. with the local

doctor’s wife... On looking back at past events it seems to me that she must have been

distinctly ordinary, but I suppose the doctor had fallen in love with her once, and what

man has done man can do. possibility and impossibility

A MAN is as old as he feels, and a woman as old as she looks

Both parts of the proverb are sometimes used on their own (see also quot. 1990).

1871 V. LUSH Thames Journal 27 Aug. (1975) 114 She is always making me out so

much older than I am and that’s not fair, for a man is only as old as he feels and a woman

is only as old as she looks. 1891 W. MORRIS News from Nowhere iii. ‘How old am I, do

you think?’ ‘Well,’ quoth I, ‘I have always been told that a woman is as old as she looks.

1907 Illustrated London News 25 May 794 The adage that a man is as old as he feels, and

a woman as old as she looks, may be said to contain much inherent truth. 1990 ‘C. AIRD’

Body Politic (1991) xi. 123 ‘He might still marry.’ Sloan was bracing. ‘A man is only as

old as he feels.’ men and women; old age