A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

from Forfar, Angus, quoted in I. OPIE & M. TATEM Oxford Dictionary of Superstitions

(1996) 238 A change of name and not of letter Is a change for the worse and not the

better. marriage; superstition

change see also (verb) if you are not the LEAD dog, the view never changes; the
LEOPARD does not change his spots; TIMES change and we with time.

chaos see BETTER a century of tyranny than one day of chaos.

chapel see where GOD builds a church, the Devil will build a chapel.

CHARITY begins at home

c 1383 in Wyclif English Works (EETS) 78 Charite schuld bigyne at hem-self. a

1625 BEAUMONT & FLETCHER Wit without Money V. ii. Charity and beating begins at

home. 1659 T. FULLER Appeal of Injured Innocence I. 25 Charity begins, but doth not

end, at home. .. My Church-History.. began with our own Domestick affairs. .. I intended..

to have proceeded to forrain Churches. 1748 SMOLLETT Roderick Random I. vi. The

world would do nothing for her if she should come to want—charity begins at home. 1910

‘SAKI’ Reginald in Russia 2 With her, as with a great many of her sex, charity began at

homeliness and did not generally progress much farther. 1985 C. MACLEOD Plain Old

Man xiv. ‘You know Aunt Emma never gives anybody a complimentary ticket. If she

did,.. there’d be no money raised for charity.’ ‘I thought charity began at home.’ 1996

Washington Post 30 July C16 True, charity begins at home, but it shouldn’t end there.

charity; home

CHARITY covers a multitude of sins

Cf. ERASMUS Responsio ad Albertum Pium (1529) 35Vquid est charitas? Est pallium
monachi. Qui sic? Quia operit multitudinem peccatorum, What is Charity? A monk’s cloak.
Why? Because it covers a multitude of sins. With allusion to I PETER iv. 8 (AV) For charity
shall cover the multitude of sins.

a 1633 G. HERBERT Priest to Temple (1652) xii. Many and wonderfull things are

spoken of thee. .. To Charity is given the covering of sins. 1794 J. Q. ADAMS Letter 26

May in Writings (1913) I. 191 Faction covers at least as great a multitude of sins as

charity. 1836 E. HOWARD Rattlin the Reefer I. xxx. The blue coat, like charity, cover-

eth a multitude of sins. 1908 ‘O. HENRY’ Gentle Grafter 47 According to the old