A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

D

daisy see it is not SPRING until you can plant your foot upon twelve daisies.

damned see CORPORATIONS have neither bodies to be punished nor souls to be damned.

They that DANCE must pay the fiddler

Cf. he who PAYS the piper calls the tune, where the emphasis is reversed. To pay the piper
(fiddler, etc.) means ‘to bear the cost (of an enterprise)’. The proverb is now predominantly
found in US use.

1638 J. TAYLOR Taylor’s Feast in Works (1876) 94 One of the Fidlers said,

Gentlemen, I pray you to remember the Musicke [musicians], you have given us nothing

yet. .. Alwayes those that dance must pay the Musicke. 1837 A. LINCOLN Speech 11 Jan.

in Works (1953) I. 64 I am decidedly opposed to the people’s money being used to pay

the fiddler. It is an old maxim and a very sound one, that he that dances should always

pay the fiddler. a 1957 L. I. WILDER First Four Years (1971) i. Laura was going to have

a baby. .. She remembered a saying of her mother’s: ‘They that dance must pay the

fiddler.’ action and consequence

dance see also he that LIVES in hope dances to an ill tune; if you can WALK you can
dance...

danger see the post of HONOUR is the post of danger; OUT of debt, out of danger.

dangerous see DELAYS are dangerous; a LITTLE knowledge is a dangerous thing. dark
see all CATS are grey in the dark.

The DARKEST hour is just before the dawn

1650 T. FULLER Pisgah Sight II. xi. It is always darkest just before the Day

dawneth. 1760 in J. Wesley Journal (1913) IV. 498 It is usually darkest before day break.

You shall shortly find pardon. 1897 1897 J. MCCARTHY Hist. our Own Times V. iii.

Ayoob Khan now laid siege to Candahar. .. As so often happens in the story of England’s