A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

1578 LYLY Euphues I. 197 As the best wine doth make the sharpest vinaigar, so the

deepest loue tourneth to the deadliest hate. 1637 J. HOWELL Familiar Letters 3 Feb.

(1903) II. 140 He swears he had rather see a basilisk than her [his former love]. The

sweetest wines may turn to the tartest vinegar. 1852 E. FITZGERALD Polonius 9 ‘It is..

the sweetest wine that makes the sharpest vinegar,’ says an old proverb. 1979 Daedalus

Summer 121 The juxtaposition silently signals the cautionary maxim ‘From the sweetest

wine, the tartest vinegar’. opposites

sweetness see the KUMARA does not speak of its own sweetness.

swift see the RACE is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.

swim see don’t go near the WATER until you learn how to swim.

swine see do not throw PEARLS to swine; on SAINT Thomas the Divine kill all turkeys,
geese, and swine.

swing see what you LOSE on the swings you gain on the roundabouts.

Swithun see SAINT Swithun’s day if thou be fair for forty days it will remain.

sword see whosoever DRAWS his sword against the prince must throw the scabbard away;
he who LIVES by the sword dies by the sword; the PEN is mightier than the sword.