A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

The FAT man knoweth not what the lean thinketh

1640 G. HERBERT Outlandish Proverbs no. 605 The fatt man knoweth not, what the

leane thinketh. 1952 C. R. SHORT Devil’s Power 111 Tony Gowar grunted. He was

thinking of an old proverb he had read in a seventeenth-century book of proverbs in his

father’s library: ‘The fat man knoweth not what the lean thinketh!’ ignorance

fat see also a GREEN Yule makes a fat churchyard; the OPERA isn’t over till the fat lady
sings.

Like FATHER, like son

The variant form like father, like daughter also occurs. Like MOTHER, like daughter
evolved separately, although both it and this proverb were fixed in this form in the seventeenth
century. Cf. L. qualis pater talis filius, as is the father, so is the son.

c 1340 R. ROLLE Psalter (1884) 342 Ill sunnys folous ill fadirs. 1509 A. BARCLAY

Ship of Fools 98 An olde prouerbe hath longe agone be sayde That oft the sone in maners

lyke wyll be Vnto the Father. 1616 T. DRAXE Adages 149 Like father like sonne. 1709 O.

DYKES English Proverbs 30 Like Father, like Son. .. How many Sons inherit their

Fathers Failings, as well as Estates? 1936 W. HOLTBY South Riding v. i. Perhaps Lydia

might do it once too often. ..Like father, like daughter. 1983 ‘M. INNES’ Appleby &

Honeybath xii. And like son, like father, if one may so vary the old expression. Neither of

them reading men. children and parents; similarity and dissimilarity

father see also the CHILD is father of the man; EXPERIENCE is the father of wisdom;
SUCCESS has many fathers, while failure is an orphan; it is a WISE child that knows its own
father; the WISH is father to the thought.

A FAULT confessed is half redressed

1558 Interlude of Wealth & Health D2V Yf thou haue doone amisse, and be sory

therfore, Then helfe a mendes is made. 1592 Arden of Feversham H1V A fault confessed

is more than half amends, but men of such ill spirite as your selfe Worke crosses

[arguments] and debates twixt man and wife. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 1140

Confession of a Fault makes half amends. 1822 SCOTT Nigel III. v. Come, my Lord,