A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

1997 Washington Times 3 June B7 I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, ‘If

something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.’ Well, in the investment world, I

say, ‘If something sounds too good to be true, it definitely is.’ 2001 Washington Times 24

Aug. E18 Apparently the old adage still applies: If a deal seems too good to be true, it

probably is. Pass it up, or at least check it out with a call to your Department of Motor

Vehicles. 2007 New Scientist 10 Nov. 76 In a few decades.. we’ll be able to program

robots to provide all the good stuff of relationships without the bad. If that sounds too

good to be true, it probably is. reality and illusion

source see a STREAM cannot rise above its source.

SOW dry and set wet

Seed put into wet soil will rot before it germinates: 1580 T. TUSSER Husbandry (rev. ed.)
xxxv. 38V By sowing in wet, Is little to get.

1660 S. RIDERS Riders: 1660 British Merlin [observation on Apr.] In gardning

never this rule forget To sowe dry, and set wet. 1846 M. A. DENHAM Proverbs relating

to Seasons, &c. 11 This rule in gardening neer forget—Sow dry and plant wet. 1985

Observer 3 Mar. 51 There is an adage for March which says ‘This rule in gardening ne’er

forget: Sow dry and set wet.’ March is the month when most people’s gardening year

starts. garden lore

A SOW may whistle, though it has an ill mouth for it

The ‘Lord Granard’ mentioned in quot. 1802 was George Forbes (1760–1837), sixth Earl
and first Baron Granard.

1802 M. EDGEWORTH Letter 19 Oct in Maria Edgeworth in France & Switzerland

(1979) 10 He waddles on dragging his boots along in a way that would make a pig laugh.

As Lord Granard says, a pig may whistle though he has a bad mouth for it. 1846 J.

GRANT Romance of War I. xii. ‘I dare say the Spanish sounds very singular to your ear.’

‘Ay, sir; it puts me in mind o’ an auld saying o’ my faither the piper. “A soo may

whussle, but its mouth is no made for’t.”’ 1927 J. BUCHAN Witch Wood xvii. Ye say he

has the speech o’ a guid Christian? Weel-a-weel, a soo may whistle, though it has an ill

mouth for it. possibility and impossibility

As you SOW, so you reap