A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

foresight and hindsight

NOTHING is for ever

1984 Defense Electronics 144/2 Nothing is forever, and political-military alliances

are less forever than most. 1992 MIEDER Dict. American Proverbs 433 Nothing can last

for ever. 2001 Times 7 Nov. 16 Mr Blair may treat Parliament’s support as unconditional,

but nothing is for ever. change

There is NOTHING new under the sun

With allusion to ECCLESIASTES i. 9 (AV) There is no new thing under the sun.

1592 G. DELAMOTHE French Alphabet II. 7 Under the large Cope of heauen, we

see not a new thing. 1664 A. BRADSTREET Works (1867) 53 There is no new thing

under the sun. 1801 T. JEFFERSON Writings (1904) X. 229 We can no longer say there is

nothing new under the sun. 1850 C. KINGSLEY Alton Locke I. xviii. There is nothing

new under the sun; all that, is stale and trite to a septuagenarian, who has seen where it all

ends. 2002 Times 4 Jan. 16 Cliché is the element in which political hacks live and move

and have our being. Not just situation cliché. There is nothing new under the sun in

politics. familiarity; novelty

NOTHING should be done in haste but gripping a flea

a 1655 N. L’ESTRANGE in Anecdotes & Traditions (1839) I. 55 A grave gentleman

in this Kingdome us’d this phrase often: ‘Do nothing rashly, but catching of fleas.’ 1678

J. RAY English Proverbs (ed. 2) 151 Nothing most be done hastily but killing of fleas.

1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 261 Nothing to be done in haste, but gripping of Fleas.

.. Spoken when we are unreasonably urged to make haste. 1927 J. BUCHAN Witch Wood
xii. What’s the need o’ hurry when the body’s leg is still to set. As my auld mither used
to say, naething suld be done in haste but grippin’ a flea. 1969 B. LEHANE Compleat
Flea i. ‘Do nothing hastily but catching of fleas,’ warns a wary proverb.

NOTHING so bad but it might have been worse

A more positive version is 1817 SCOTT Rob Roy II. xiii. There’s naething sae gude on this
side o’ time but it might hae been better.