A US slogan particularly associated with the radio crime series The Shadow, in which it
was spoken by The Shadow at the end of each broadcast (see quot. 1937), and with the cartoon
detective Dick Tracy (see quot. 1954).
1892 Catholic World Dec. 364 Until our laws are so made and executed as to prove
that crime doesn’t pay.. then only will religion and common-sense.. work out the great
plan of creation. 1905 Harper’s Weekly 18 Feb. 231/2 If only Christopher had stuck to
Sherlock Holmes it would have been impressed upon him that crime doesn’t pay, and that
the cleverest criminal gets caught. 1937 E. H. BIERSTADT Shadow: Death House Rescue
26 Sept. (script of radio broadcast) 18 The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. .. Crime does
not pay. .. The Shadow knows. .. (Laugh). 1954 S. BECKER Comic Art in America 5 Dick
Tracy is the daddy of all cops-and-robbers strips, and Chester Gould.. has been
announcing to the world since 1931 that crime does not pay. 1959 Times Literary
Supplement 12 June 356 War, like crime, may not pay, but that does not make the
problem of preventing it any easier. 2001 Country Life 20/27 Dec 85 We hear of.. David
Steele’s meanness (he was known as ‘Crime’ because he never bought a drink - ‘Crime
doesn’t pay’). action and consequencecrime see also POVERTY is not a crime.crocodile see if you have to LIVE in the river, it is best to be friends with the crocodile; no
matter how long a LOG stays in the water...
crop see good SEED makes a good crop.Don’t CROSS the bridge till you come to itDo not concern yourself with difficulties until they arise. Now also common as the
metaphorical phrase to cross one’s bridges when one comes to them.
1850 LONGFELLOW Journal 29 Apr. in Life (1886) II. 165 Remember the proverb,
‘Do not cross the bridge till you come to it.’ 1895 S. O. ADDY Household Tales xiv. One
who anticipates difficulty is told not to cross the bridge till he gets to it. 1927 ‘J. TAINE’
Quayle’s Invention XV. Why cross our bridges before we come to them? 1967 T.
STOPPARD Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead II. 43 We cross our bridges when we
come to them and burn our bridges behind us, with nothing to show for our progress
except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.