A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

payment) originated as mid 20th-cent. US slang.

1966 L. COULTHARD in Director Aug. 228 Shareholders want the best available

businessmen to lead the companies and recognise that you get what you pay for. If you

pay in peanuts, you must expect to get monkeys. 1979 P. ALEXANDER Show me Hero

iii. ‘That’s forty thousand we’re giving away. Seems an awful lot.’ ‘If you pay peanuts,’

said Ashman, ‘you get monkeys.’ 1979 Guardian 11 Sept. 30 The companies’ chief

negotiator.. was greeted with shouts of’if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys’. 1994 S.

REUBEN Origin and Cause xvii. 107 ‘How much is..this photo-enhancement going to

cost my client?’ ‘A bundle. .. But in my experience, if you pay peanuts, you get

monkeys.’ employers and employees; money

pay see also (noun) NO cure, no pay; (verb) CRIME doesn’t pay; they that DANCE must
pay the fiddler; DEATH pays all debts; SPEAK not of my debts unless you mean to pay them;
the THIRD time pays for all.

He who PAYS the piper calls the tune

Reversing the emphasis of they that DANCE must pay the fiddler.

1895 Daily News 18 Dec. 9 Londoners had paid the piper, and should choose the

tune. 1910 Spectator 22 Oct. 643 Until British electors know that the dollars have been

returned they will be wise in placing little trust in Nationalist ‘loyalty’. He who pays the

piper calls the tune. 2002 Times 2 Jan. 14 In no profession is the saying ‘He who pays the

piper, calls the tune’ more apt than government. action and consequence; money

You PAYS your money and you takes your choice

Both pays and takes are non-standard, colloquial forms.

1846 Punch X. 16 ‘Which is the Prime Minister?’.. ‘Which ever you please, my little

dear. You pays your money, and you takes your choice.’ 1904 v. s. LEAN Collectanea IV.

205 You pays your money and you takes your choice. You pays your money and what you

sees is A cow or a donkey just as you pleases. 2001 Washington Post Book World 23 Dec.

11 Which is the right answer? You pays your money, as another saying goes, and you

takes your choice. choices; money