The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (223 page)

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GOD made the country, and man made the town
Cf. VARRO
De Re Rustica
III. i.
divina natura dedit agros
,
ars humana aedificavit urbes
, divine nature gave us the fields, human art built the cities.
1667
in
Poems
2
My father said .. God the first Garden made, & the first City, Cain.
1785
Task
I. 40
God made the country, and man made the town.
1870
Memoir
25 Jan. (1897) II. 96
There is a saying that if God made the country, and man the town, the devil made the little country town.
1941
Above Suspicion
x.
God made the country, man made the town. Pity men couldn't learn better.
1977
Field & Beneath
i.
It has been said that ‘God made the country and man made the town’, but .. the town is simply disguised countryside.
Nature
GOD makes the back to the burden
1822
Weekly Register
12 Jan. 94
As ‘God has made the back to the burthen,’ so the clay and coppice people make the dress to the stubs and bushes.
1839
Nicholas Nickleby
xviii.
Heaven suits the back to the burden.
1939
Trouble for Lucia
ii.
‘Spare yourself a bitty’ I've said, and always she's replied ‘Heaven fits the back to the burden.’
1979
Grave of Truth
viii.
So many questions and nobody to answer them; it was a true penance for her … God made the back for the burden … An Irish nun .. had taught them that saying from her native land.
providence
;
trouble
GOD never sends mouths but He sends meat
1377
Piers Plowman
B. xiv. 39
For lente neuere was lyf but lyflode [livelihood] were shapen.
1546
Dialogue of Proverbs
I. iv. B1
God neuer sendeth mouthe, but he sendeth meat.
1832
Swallow Barn
I. xxviii.
God never sends mouths .. but he sends meat, and any man who has sense enough to be honest, will never want wit to know how to live.
1905
Gospel according to St. Matthew
I. 103
We are meant to be righteous, and shall not in vain desire to be so. God never sends mouths but He sends meat to fill them.
hunger
;
providence

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