A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

A conflation of two biblical sayings: ECCLESIASTES viii. 15 (AV) Then I commended
mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be
merry .. and ISAIAH xxii. 13 (AV) Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die. There are
a number of jocular variants (see for example quot. 2001).

1870 D. G. ROSSETTI ‘The Choice’ in House of Life, Sonnet lxxi. Eat thou and

drink; tomorrow thou shalt die. 1884 E. LYALL We Two xii. 240 But far from prompting

him to repeat the maxim ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’ it spurred him

rather to a sort of fiery energy, never satisfied with what it had accomplished. 1960 O.

MANNING Great Fortune (1988) 42 Inchcape.. complained: ‘I’ve never before seen this

place in such a hubbub.’ ‘It’s the war,’ said Clarence. ‘Eat, drink and be merry, for

tomorrow we may be starving to death.’ 1975 N. GUILD Lost and Found Man 87 No

point in getting morbid. .. What the hell. Eat, drink, and be merry, and all that crap. Lukas

signaled the waiter and ordered another two croissants. 2001 New Scientist 22/29 Dec. 45

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we diet. life; opportunity

He that would EAT the fruit must climb the tree

Cf. 1577 J. GRANGE Golden Aphroditis M1 Who will the fruyte that haruest yeeldes,
must take the payne.

1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 141 He that would eat the Fruit must climb the

Tree. 1843 ‘R. CARLTON’ New Purchase I. xxiv. It is a proverb, ‘He that would eat the

fruit must first climb the tree and get it’: but when that fruit is honey, he that wants it

must first cut it down. 1970 V. CANNING Great Affair xiv. ‘Son, are you one of those

who like to eat the fruit and then walk away from the tree?’ ‘I want to marry her.’

wanting and having

EAT to live, not live to eat

Attributed to SOCRATES (See Diogenes Laertius Socrates II. xxxiv.)
and he said that other men live to eat,
but he eats to live. Cf. CICERO Rhetoricorum IV. vii. edere oportet ut vivas, non vivas ut
edas, one must eat to live, not live to eat.

1387 J. TREVISA tr. Higden’s Polychronicon (1871) III. 281 Socrates seide that

meny men wil leve forto ete and drynke, and that they wolde ete and drynke.. forto lyve. c

1410 in Secreta Secretorum (1898) 67 I will ete so that y leue, and noght lyf that y ete.