A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

B

B see who SAYS A must say B.

babe see out of the MOUTHS of babes—.

baby see don’t THROW the baby out with the bathwater.

back see GOD makes the back to the burden; what is GOT over the Devil’s back is spent
under his belly; it is the LAST straw that breaks the camel’s back; you SCRATCH my back,
I’ll scratch yours.

A BAD excuse is better than none

1551 T. WILSON Rule of Reason S6 This is as thei saie in English, better a badde

excuse, then none at all. 1579 S. GOSSON School of Abuse 24 A bad excuse is better,

they say, then none at all. 1821 W. WIRT Letter 29 Aug. in J. P. Kennedy Memoirs

(1849) II. vii. The old fellow’s look had a glimpse of passing cunning as much as to say,

‘A bad excuse is better than none.’ 1981 P. VAN GREENAWAY ‘Cassandra’ Bill xiii.

What excuse is better than none? excuses

BAD money drives out good

Commonly known as Gresham’s Law, after Sir Thomas Gresham (c 1519–79), founder of
the Royal Exchange. Gresham saw the economic need to restore the purity of the coinage,
though there is no evidence that he actually used this expression. Quot. 1902 states that the
principle, not the proverb, is mentioned in Gresham’s letter to the Queen. ( 1858 H. D.
MACLEOD Elements of Political Economy 477 He [Gresham] was the first to perceive that a
bad and debased currency is the cause of the disappearance of the good money.)

1902 New English Dictionary VI. 116 Gresham’s law, the principle, involved in Sir

Thomas Gresham’s letter to Q. Elizabeth in 1558, that ‘bad money drives out good’. 1933

A. HUXLEY Letter 18 Nov. (1969) 438 Gresham’s Law holds good in every field.. and

bad politics tends to drive out good politics just as bad money drives out good money.

1982 R. NISBET Prejudices 178 Genuine scholars receive grants too, but this misses the

crucial point, which is that bad money drives out good, and that only a few years of such