A Dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

If you can’t BEAT them, join them

Lick is more usual in the US.

1941 Q. REYNOLDS Wounded don’t Cry i. There is an old political adage which

says ‘If you can’t lick’em, jine ‘em’. 1953 P. GALLICO Foolish Immortals xvii. It was

vital to him to get the reins back into his own hands again. He remembered an old adage:

‘If you can’t lick ’em, join ‘em.’ 1979 D. LESSING Shikasta 2661 said, Running things,

what’s the point? He said, If you can’t beat them, join them! 1996 Washington Times 2

July B8 Having taken it on the chin so convincingly, brokers have decided that, if you

can’t beat ’em, join ’em. 2002 Washington Times 26 Feb. A20 In fact, he began an

attempt to win over the Catholic party to his side; the Teutonic version of ‘can’t lick ’em,

join ’em.’ enemies; self-preservation

beat see also one ENGLISHMAN can beat three Frenchmen; it is easy to find a STICK to
beat a dog; a WOMAN, a dog, and a walnut tree, the more you beat them the better they be.

beautiful see SMALL is beautiful.

BEAUTY draws with a single hair

1591 J. FLORIO Second Fruits 183 Ten teemes of oxen draw much lesse, Than doth

one haire of Helens tresse. 1640 G. HERBERT Outlandish Proverbs no. 685 Beauty

drawes more then oxen. 1666 G. TORRIANO Piazza Universale 199 One hair of a woman

draws more than a hundred yoke of oxen. 1712 POPE Rape of Lock II. 28 And beauty

draws us with a single hair. 1941 ‘M. COLES’ They tell no Tales xxii. Beauty draws me

with a single hair if it’s blonde enough. 1945 R. L. HINE Confessions (ed. 2) 91 The old

adage.. that ‘beauty draws more than oxen.’ beauty

BEAUTY is in the eye of the beholder

Beauty is not judged objectively, but according to the beholder’s estimation. The idea is a

very old one: THEOCRITUS Idyll vi. 18 for in
the eyes of love that which is not beautiful often seems beautiful. Cf. 1742 HUME Essays
Moral & Political II. 151 Beauty, properly speaking, lyes.. in the Sentiment or Taste of the
Reader.

1769 F. BROOKE Hist. Emily Montague IV. 205 You should remember, my dear,