A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

says Tell your lawyer everything, Mr. Moy.’ .. ‘An old saying asserts that rules were

made to be broken. You must remember that also!’ 1954 A. C. CLARKE Expedition to

Earth 58 It is a fundamental rule of space-flight that.. the minimum crew on a long

journey shall consist of not less than three men. But rules are made to be broken. 2001

Washington Post Book World 28 Jan. 13 It’s a rule of crime fiction that recurring main

characters rarely get knocked off; but during Flavia’s final confrontation with a sadistic

murderer, Pears gives his uneasy readers cause to remember that rules are made to be

broken. rules, general

If you RUN after two hares you will catch neither

Cf. ERASMUS Adages III. ccxxxvii. duos insequens lepores, neutrum capit, he who chases
two hares catches neither.

1509 A. BARCLAY Ship of Fools H5 A fole is he.. Whiche with one haunde tendyth

[intends] to take two harys in one instant. 1580 LYLY Euphues & his England II. 157 I

am redie to take potions.. yet one thing maketh to feare, that in running after two Hares,

I catch neither. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 2782 If you run after two Hares, you

will catch neither. 1880 C. H. SPURGEON John Ploughman’s Pictures 24 If we please

one we are sure to get another grumbling. We shall be like the man who hunted many

hares at once and caught none. 1981 P. O’DONNELL Xanadu Talisman v. Let’s take

things a step at a time. You know what they say. If you run after two hares you will catch

neither. decision and indecision; wanting and having

You cannot RUN with the hare and hunt with the hounds

Also used in the metaphorical phrase to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. In
quot. 1546 tytifils comes from Titivil, formerly a common name for a demon.

a 1449 J. LYDGATE Minor Poems (EETS) 821 He.. holdeth bothe with hounde and

hare. 1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs I. x. C3 There is no mo [more] suche

tytifils [scoundrels] in Englands grounde, To holde with the hare, and run with the

hounde. 1694 Trimmer’s Confession of Faith I I can hold with the Hare, and run with the

Hound: Which no Body can deny. 1896 M. A. S. HUME Courtships of Queen Elizabeth

xii. Leicester, as usual, tried to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, to retain

French bribes and yet to stand in the way of French objects. 1975 J. O’FAOLAIN Women

in Wall v. Clotair’s henchmen say: ‘You cannot run with the hare and hunt with the

hounds.’ The peasants have an even clearer way of putting this: ‘You cannot’, they say,

‘side with the cow and the clover’. choices