to walk before they could run. 1980 K. AMIS Russian Hide & Seek iv. At the moment we
can’t leave it to the English to do anything. We must learn to walk before we can run.
patience and impatience\walk see also AFTER dinner rest a while, after supper walk a mile.wall see the WEAKEST go to the wall.WALLS have earsSimilar to FIELDS have eyes, and woods have ears.1575 G. GASCOIGNE Supposes I. i. The table.., the portals, yes and the cupbords
them selves have eares. 1592 G. DELAMOTHE French Alphabet II. 29 The walles may
have some eares. .. Les murailles ont des aureilles. 1620 T. SHELTON tr. Cervantes’ Don
Quixote II. xlviii. They say Walls haue eares. 1766 D. GARRICK Neck or Nothing II. i.
Not so fast and so loud, good master of mine—walls have ears. 1822 SCOTT Nigel I. vi.
It is not good to speak of such things. .. Stone walls have ears. 1958 L. DURRELL
Mountolive XII. 232 She lay in the silence of a room which had housed (if walls have
ears) their most secret deliberations. 2000 J. ALTMAN Gathering of Spies v. 91 He
realized that Himmler was waiting to gain distance from the house before speaking.
Walls had ears, and Nazi walls had more ears than most. eavesdropperswalnut see a WOMAN, a dog, and a walnut tree, the more you beat them the better they
be.
WALNUTS and pears you plant for your heirsThe idea of ‘planting trees for posterity’ is much older than the specific references to
walnuts and pears. Cf. CICERO Cato Major vii. 24 ‘serit arbores, quae alteri saeclo prosint,’
ut ait Statius noster in Synephebis,’he plants trees, which will be of use to another age,’ as
[Caecilius] Statius says in his Synephebi.
1640 G. HERBERT Outlandish Proverbs no. 198 The tree that growes slowly, keepes
it selfe for another. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 2401 He who plants a Walnut-Tree,
expects not to eat of the Fruit. 1863 A. SMITH Dreamthorp xi. My oaks are but saplings;
but what undreamed-of English kings will they not outlive?.. A man does not plant a tree