A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Krebs took out his billfold. ‘Can you give me any assurance that you have useful

information?’ ‘Nope.’.. ‘You never accumulate if you don’t speculate.’ 1957

WODEHOUSE Something Fishy iv. Don’t spoil the ship for a ha’porth of tar, or, putting

it another way, if you don’t speculate, you can’t accumulate. 1984 J. S. SCOTT All Pretty

People ix. ‘Bloody liquor’s becoming an expense.’ ‘Won’t be for long. You have to

speculate to accumulate, if we kept her sober we couldn’t do it our way.’ gains and

losses; riches; risk

SPEECH is silver, but silence is golden

See also the abbreviated form SILENCE is golden.

1834 CARLYLE in Fraser’s Magazine June 668 As the Swiss Inscription says:

Sprechen ist silbern, Schweigen ist golden (Speech is silvern, Silence is golden). 1865 A.

RICHARDSON Secret Service ii. A taciturn but edified listener, I pondered upon..

‘speech is silver, while silence is golden’. 1936 W. HOLTBY South Riding I. iv. She will

give a pound note to the collection if I would cut my eloquence short, so in this case,

though speech is silver, silence is certainly golden. 1961 M. SPARK Prime of Miss Jean

Brodie i. Speech is silver but silence is golden. Mary, are you listening? speech and

silence

speed see more HASTE, less speed.

What you SPEND, you have

The original of quot. 1579, which is quoted inexactly by Spenser, was the epitaph on the
tomb of Edward Courtenay Earl of Devon (d. 1509) and his wife in St. Peter’s church,
Tiverton, Devon.

c 1300 in M. R. James Catalogue of Library Pembroke College (1905) 35 That ich et

[I ate] that ich hadde. That ich gaf that ich habbe. That ich ay held that i nabbe [do not

have]. 1579 SPENSER Shepherd’s Calendar (May) 56 (Glossary) Ho, ho, who lies here? I

the good Earle of Deuonshere, And Maulde my wife, that was ful deare. .. That we spent,

we had: That we gaue, we haue: That we lefte we lost. 1773 S. JOHNSON Letter 12 Aug.

(1952) I. 338 The monument of Robert of Doncaster.. says.. something like this. What I

gave, that I have; what I spent, that I had; what I left that I lost. 1862 Times 15 Dec. 8 The

most common maxim of the rank and file of British industry is that what you spend you

have for it alone cannot be taken away from you. getting and spending