A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

DOGS bark, but the caravan goes on

Quot. 1956 is a humorous inversion of the proverb. In most instances of this proverb,
caravan is in its original sense of ‘a company of people travelling together in the desert’, but
quot. 1956 uses the ‘mobile home’ sense.

1891 J. L. KIPLING Beast & Man in India ix. 252 ‘The dog barks but the elephant

moves on’ is sometimes said to indicate the superiority of the great to popular clamour,

but the best form of the phrase is, ‘Though the dog may bark the caravan (kafila) moves

on.’ 1924 C. K. SCOTT MONCRIEFF tr. Proust’s Within Budding Grove I. 45 In the

words of a fine Arab proverb, ‘The dogs may bark; the caravan goes on!’.. Its effect was

great, the proverb being familiar to us already. It had taken the place, that year, among

people who ‘really counted’, of ‘He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.’ 1930

Time 4 July 17 I was struggling to explain the situation to an old Moor. .. After thinking it

over he murmured: ‘Dogs bark but the caravan goes on.’ 1956 D. SMITH Hundred & One

Dalmatians xiv. The shut-in Romany dogs heard them [the Dalmatians] and shook the

caravans in their efforts to get out. .. ‘The caravans bark but the dogs move on,’ remarked

Pongo, when he felt they were out of danger. 2002 Spectator 6 July 28 The dogs bark, but

the caravan moves on. ICC, Kyoto, Arafat, Iraq.. early chapters in a long story. If you

want to be part of it, join America. If you want to impede it, join a terrorist group. great

and small; malice

DOGS look up to you, cats look down on you, pigs is equal

Attributed to Winston Churchill (1874–1965): ‘I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats
look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals’ (in M. Gilbert Never Despair (1988) 304).

1980 Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA) 10 Jan 20 Geraldine, a Wessex

Saddleback sow, of intermediate age, established herself in the order of things from the

first moment of her arrival on our farm.. I’ve heard it said that, while a dog looks up to

you, and a cat looks down on you, a pig looks you straight in the eye. When she fixed you

with her gaze you knew it was a privilege to be considered an equal by Geraldine. 2000

Guardian 3 Mar. 2 ‘Intelligent animals are pigs,’ he says. ‘Sociable, too. Individual.

Playful. They’ve got ideas of their own, go their own way. Dogs look up to you, they say,

cats look down, but pigs are your equal.’ 2002 Times 24 Sept. 21 Back in the 1960s our

transplantation team had every good reason to credit the old country adage, ‘dogs look up

to you, cats look down on you, pigs is equal’. animals; equality

doing see if a THING’S worth doing, it’s worth doing well.