The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-02-20
EVERYDAY SAYINGS.
TERSE QUOTATIONS THAT ARE PoPU-
LAR FAVORlTES.

'N'lA 'ONg 3 NoHSuc aoIuCIllueS nave
faroff origin, and it is interesting to learn
when and by whom they were first said
The society editor could i'll describe a
fostivity without the aid of the wee sma'
hours ayont the twal, 80 which is found in
Burns poem Death and Doctor Horn
brook. Dancing is never dancing, but
people trip the light fantastic toe" for
which expression the editor is indebted to
no less a parsonage than John Milton
Conspicuous by his absence" was used
by Lord John Russell, who quoted it from
Tacitus And echo answers where" is
from Lord Byron's Bride of Abydos. "
1T beggars description is found in An
tony and Cleopatra. " "Whcre ignorance
is bliss tbs folly to be wise" was said by
Gray in hi Ode to Etun College. "
Well begun is half done" may be traced
back TO Horace. According to her gar
ment she emit her cloth was said by Dry
den in "The Cock and Fox" Sir John
Holt in "Sir William Morris Case" said,
The better the day the better the deed "
Ouu Of sight out Of mind dates back to
/ 1868 and is found in Googe's "Epytaphes,
| Eglogs, and Sonnettes" "And there,
/ though last not least, - is from Skelton S
| "Colin Clout, and Through thick and
| thin from the Faery Queen"
Rare" Ben Jonson gives the advice to
Laugh and be fat" One of Bishop
! Horne's sermons is the source of 1T is
| better to wear out than to rust out
! George Wither in a Poem on Christmas"
| gives the warning that Care viii kill a
cat" and a couplet from John Wolcot's
| "Expostulary Odes" contains the same
| sentiment:
Care to our coffin adds nail, no doubt,
And every grin so merry draws one out.
| Nothing venture, nothing have" is
! found in Five Hundred Points of Hus-
bandry," by Thomas Tusser. Churchill,
in ''The Ghost, said "The more haste
the less speed. =" ITO 20 in one ear and
out at the other" probably had its origin
in Chaucer's One care it heard, at the
other it went out.
Prior, in his Epilogue TO Lucius, " gave
US an adage which is in use every day,
''The gray mare will prove the better
horse" MY dear, my better half" was
said by Sir Philip Sidney, in Arcadia "
"Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gan
der" is from "The New Maxims of Tom
Brown" and another proverb often exem-
plifed is from a fable by Cay
In every age and cline we see
Two Of a trade can Ter agree.
Ben Jonson, in ''The Devil Is an ASS"
says that "A burnt child breads the fire.
" Tis good to look before you leap"
comes from Martin Parker's Excellent
New Medley " Goldsmith tells us that
Man wants but little here below
Coming events cast their shadows be-
| fore" is found in ''LOchiel's Warming
! by Campbell. Discretion is the better
part Of yalor" occurs in Beaumont and
! Fletchor's "A King and No King" and
| Shakespeare uses almost the same words
| in Henry IVn-"The better part Of valor
is discretion, in which better part I have
saved my life.
Many other sayings have been used
with slight variations by several authors.
! Comparisons are odious' is found in
! Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, in
| Heyward's s a Woman Killed by Kind
ness" in Donne, and in George Herbert.
| In Don Quixote" we read that Com
parisons are offensive" Thomas Kem-
! pis says that ''Of two evils the less is to be
chosen" and in Prior's limitations of
Horace" we find, "Of two evils have
chosen the least " Wordsworth is respon-
sible for the statement that 1.-THE child is
father to the man, but in Paradise Re-
| gained" Milton had already said;
The childhood shows the man
| AS morning shows the day.
The changes have been rung on the ex-
| preston can is not gold that glitters."
Middleton gives "All is not gold that
! glistens." Spenser, in the "Faerie
Queene," " says, "Gold is not all that gold
| en- seems" Lydgate has "In all that
! glisters gold all is not gold that outward
| showeth light" Dryden's version is "All,
as they say, that glistens is not gold, "
and Chaucer, in the Canterbury Tales, 1"
says the same thing, but with more cir
cumlocution;
But think that which schineth as the gold
Is naught that l have herd tell.
'There' luck in odd numbers" Lover
makes Rory O'Moore say. And in "The
Merry Wives of Windsor we find GOOD
luck lies in odd numbers, +" they say
there is a divinity in odd numbers, either
in nativity, chance or death - Heaven
never helps the man who will not act, "
said Sophocles and Sir Philip Sidney put
the same idea in smaller compass in "God
helps those who help themselves"
"Holy' George Herbert is the author or
compiler of many shrewd sayings, such as
"Wouldst thou have thy cake and keep it
too?" 1.-THE wearer knows where the
shoe pinches, " Little pitchers have wide
]
the candle, " Goods mills grind slow but
sure, " "Half the world knows not how
the other half lives, - "His bark is worse
than his bite, " THE burnt child breads
the fire "Ihe mill cannot grind with
water that is past, Whose house Is glass
must not throw stones at another, God
comes to see without a bell, IAN i'll
laborer quarrels with his TOOLS" ''To a
close shorn sheep God gives wind by
measure. This is probably the origin Of
the proverb "God tempers the wind to the
shorn lamb, " which was said by Sterne in
"Tristram Shandy." Herbert also quotes
Man proposes; God disposes This
was first said by Thomas a Kempis.
A great many Of our common sayings
are taken from Shakespeare. As dead
rs "a door nail" and "To give the devil his
due" are from "HenIy "" My cake
is dough" is from "The Tanning Of the
Shrew" "Screw your courage to the
sticking place" is found in Macbeth. "
Some quotations from Shakespeare are
rredited 60 the Bible, as, for instance,
That bourne from which no traveller re-
lurns which is used by a worthy deacon
once a week in prayer meeting in the be-
lief that it is a Scrptural quotation.
Beaumont and Fletcher are responsible
for several much used sayings, such as
"Begglrs should never be choosers, -
found in "The Scornful Lady, and One
mans meat is another mans poison, "