Showing posts tagged proverb
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Better the cottage where one is merry than the palace where one weeps.
Chinese proverb. The Toastmaster’s Treasure Chest by Herbert V. Prochonow, 1979.
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You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.
Chinese proverb. The Toastmaster’s Treasure Chest by Herbert V. Prochonow, 1979.
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Better to do a kindness near home than go to a far temple to burn incense.
Chinese proverb. The Toastmaster’s Treasure Chest by Herbert V. Prochonow, 1979.
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To think is to converse with oneself.
Spanish proverb. The Toastmaster’s Treasure Chest by Herbert V. Prochonow, 1979.

Trust everyone, but cut the cards.

The proverb comes from the game of cards where players cut the cards to prevent cheating. It was used by Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) in Mr. Dooley’s Opinions (1900).

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

Slowly, the future continues to become, from one day to the next, forever. The line is from Shakespeare’s Macbeth (about 1606). It is one of the literary sayings that every American needs to know, according to E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

Their name is legion.

They are numerous or extensive. The saying first appeared in the New Testament and has been in common use ever since.

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

Praise the bridge that carries you over.

Give credit to everything that helps you. The proverb has been traced back to the seventeenth century. 

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

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I wish I cared what you do or where you go but I can’t… My dear, I don’t give a damn.
Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind. Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

Luck is the residue of design.

Attributed to baseball executive Branch Rickey (1881-1965).

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

Let the dead bury the dead.

Look to the future and put the past behind you. Of Biblical origin.

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

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He who never made a mistake never made anything.
Joseph Conrad. Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

Even Homer nods.

The Latin saying goes back to Horace (65-8 B.C.). Homer was the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey and even in these there are dull passages.

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

Don’t put new wine in old bottles.

Don’t put something new in an old frame (case, system, etc.)  The idea was first expressed in the Bible: “Neither do men put new wine in old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottle perish; but they put new wine in new bottles and both are preserved.”

Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.

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Eat an apple on going to bed,
And you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.
Welsh proverb. Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings by Gregory Y. Titelman, 1996.