A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

shut see also a DOOR must either be shut or open; when ONE door shuts, another opens; it
is too late to shut the STABLE-door after the horse has bolted.

shy see ONCE bitten, twice shy.

sick see the DEVIL was sick, the Devil a saint would be.. ; HOPE deferred makes the heart
sick.

side see it is BEST to be on the safe side; the BREAD never falls but on its buttered side;
the GRASS is always greener on the other side of the fence; PROVIDENCE is always on the
side of the big battalions; there are TWO sides to every question.

sight see in vain the NET is spread in the sight of the bird; OUT of sight, out of mind.

SILENCE is a woman’s best garment

Cf. SOPHOCLES Ajax 1. 293 silence is a woman’s ornament.
The passage of St. Paul alluded to in quot. 1539 is I CORINTHIANS xiv. 34 (AV) Let your
women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak.

1539 R. TAVERNER tr. Erasmus’ Adages 50 Mulierem ornat silentium. Silence

garny-sheth a woman.. whych thynge also the Apostle Paule requyreth. 1659 J. HOWELL

Proverbs (English) 11 Silence the best ornament of a woman. 1732 T. FULLER

Gnomologia no. 4166 Silence is a fine Jewel for a Woman; but it’s little worn. 1977 J.

AIKEN Five-Minute Marriage iv. Quiet, miss! Silence is a woman’s best garment.

speech and silence; women

SILENCE is golden

Sometimes in the fuller version SPEECH is silver, but silence is golden.

1865 W. WHITE Eastern England II. ix. Silence is golden, says the proverb. We

apprehend the full significance.. in some lone hamlet situate amid a ‘thousand fields’.

1923 A. HUXLEY Antic Hay xx. Silence is golden, as her father used to say when she

used to fly into tempers and wanted to say nasty things to everybody within range. 2002

Washington Post 4 Apr. C13 (Mother Goose & Grimm comic strip) ‘What I don’t

understand is.. how can campaign money be free speech.. but silence is golden?’ speech