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Cold hands, warm heart [a] Comparisons are odious [a] Count your blessings [a] Courage is the measure of a Man, Beauty is the measure of a Woman [a] Cowards may die many times before their death [a] Crime does not pay [a] Cream rises. Criss-cross, applesauce [a] Cross the stream where it is shallowest.
The proverb literally means "you cannot simultaneously retain possession of a cake and eat it, too". Once the cake is eaten, it is gone. It can be used to say that one cannot have two incompatible things, or that one should not try to have more than is reasonable. The proverb's meaning is similar to the phrases "you can't have it both ways" and ...
A couple of other expressions are quand les poules auront des dents ("when hens have teeth") [19] and quand les coqs pondront des œufs ("when roosters lay eggs"). An expression, today falling into disuse, is la semaine des quatre jeudis ("the week of the four Thursdays"), as in "that will happen (or not) during the week of the four Thursdays ...
There is a reference to the many things that can intervene between cup and lip already in an iambic verse by Lycophron (3rd century BC) quoted by Erasmus. [1] [2]There is a slight similarity between the wording of the proverb and that of an unattributed Greek iambic trimeter verse quoted by Cicero in one of his letters Ad Atticum (51 BC), but here refers to the geographical distance between ...
May her lakes and rivers bless you. May the luck of the Irish enfold you. May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you. 25. May you have the health to wear it. 26. May the luck of the Irish ...
The proverb is mentioned in the Republic of Plato (424A and 449C) as a principle to be applied to marriage and procreation. Diogenes Laertius (VIII.10) reports the assertion of Timaeus that Pythagoras was first to use the saying, along with φιλία ἰσότης (filía isótēs) "Friendship is equality." Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται.
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
The Proverbs of Alfred is a collection of early Middle English sayings ascribed to King Alfred the Great (called "England's darling"), said to have been uttered at an assembly in Seaford, East Sussex. [1] The collection of proverbs was probably put together in Sussex in the mid-12th century. [2][3] The manuscript evidence suggests the text ...