A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

lateness; learning

It is NEVER too late to mend

See also the two adjacent proverbs.

1590 R. GREENE (title) Never too late. 1594 LODGE & GREENE Looking-Glass

for London I3V Amends may neuer come too late. c 1645 J. HOWELL Familiar Letters 9

Nov. (1903) III. 139 We have both of us our failings that way ..but it is never over late to

mend. 1856 C. READE (title) It is never too late to mend. 1934 H. SPRING Shabby Tiger

iv. Adolf shrugged a shoulder which suggested that it’s never too late to mend. 1961 I.

JEFFERIES It wasn’t Me! i. How kind. .. Never too late to mend. improvement;

lateness

NEVER too old to learn

See also the two preceding proverbs. Cf. SENECA Epistle LXXVI. iii. tamdiu discen-dum
est, quamdiu nescias: si proverbio credimus, quamdiu vivas, we must go on learning as long as
we are ignorant; or, if we believe the proverb, as long as we live.

1530 A. BARCLAY Eclogues (EETS) II. 538 Coridon thou art not to olde for to lere.

1555 Institution of Gentleman B7V No man can be to olde to learne. 1670 J. RAY English

Proverbs 112 Never too old to learn. 1712 J. ARBUTHNOT Law is Bottomles Pit I. vii. A

Lawyer I was born, and a Lawyer I will be; one is never too Old to learn. 1858

TROLLOPE Dr. Thorne I. x. One should never be too old to learn—there’s always

something new worth picking up. 1990 ‘C. AIRD’ ‘Lord Peter’s Touch’ in Injury Time

(1995) 45 ‘All right then, tell me. I suppose I’m never too old to learn.’ learning; old

age

never see also BETTER late than never; never send a BOY to do a man’s job; never do
EVIL that good may come of it; what you’ve never HAD you never miss; PAY beforehand was
never well served; never let the SUN go down on your anger.

NEW brooms sweep clean

The phrase new broom (one newly appointed to a position who makes changes in personnel
or procedures) derives from this proverb.