A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

polity. Clothes have made men of us. 1933 J. HILTON Lost Horizon 3 Still, it did happen

—and it goes some way to show that clothes make the man, doesn’t it? 2001 Washington

Post 17 Dec. C12 Gem of the day (credit Mark Twain): Clothes make the man. Naked

people have little or no influence on society. appearance, significant; dress

clothes see there is no such thing as BAD weather, only the wrong clothes.

Every CLOUD has a silver lining

A poetic sentiment that even the gloomiest outlook contains some hopeful or consoling
aspect. Cf. 1634 MILTON Comus I. 93 Was I deceiv’d, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her
silver lining on the night?

1863 D. R. LOCKE Struggles of P. V. Nasby (1872) xxiii. Ther is a silver linin to

evry cloud. 1869 P. T. BARNUM Struggles & Triumphs 406 ‘Every cloud’, says the

proverb, ‘has a silver lining.’ 1991 T. MO Redundancy of Courage xxii. 283 This

misfortune of hers had done wonders for our up and down relationship—all clouds have a

silver lining, don’t they say. 2002 Spectator 13 Apr. 74 Still, every cloud has a silver

lining, and he was quiet for the rest of the meal, which is something of a delightful first.

optimism

clout see ne’er CAST a clout till May be out.

clutch see a DROWNING man will clutch at a straw.

coat see CUT your coat according to your cloth.

Let the COBBLER stick to his last

Attributed to the Greek painter Apelles (4th cent. BC): see quot. 1721. The ‘shoemaker’
variant is a long-standing one in British proverb lore, but is now mainly North American. A
last is a wooden or metal model on which a shoemaker fashions shoes or boots. Cf. PLINY
Natural History xxxv. 85 ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret, the cobbler should not judge
beyond his shoe; ERASMUS Adages I. vi. 16 ne sutor ultra crepidam.

1539 R. TAVERNER tr. Erasmus’ Adages 17 Let not the shoemaker go beyond hys

shoe. 1616 J. WITHALS Dict. (rev. ed.) 567 Cobler keepe your last. 1639 J. CLARKE