The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (232 page)
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What GOES around comes around
A modern proverb of US origin.
1974
Donald writes no More
xv.
No one can say why Donald Goines and Shirley Sailor were murdered. The ghetto philosophy, ‘what goes around comes around’, is the only answer most people can give. It is probably the answer Donald Goines himself would have provided.
1982
Ethics
108
At this juncture another, more recent, adage springs to mind: What goes around comes around. It is, all in all, a terrific statement, and I know a lot of people who would turn handsprings if only they could be assured it was ture.
1985
Washington Post
23 Oct. C13
‘What goes around comes around,’ a gay man said, and people at City Hall spoke of ‘poetic justice’, or retribution long deserved.
1989
Washington Times
19 Apr. F1
No sooner had the royal accusers sent Louis XVI and his queen to the guillotine, than they themselves were being hoist onto the tumbrels by men whose own heads would later drop into the basket. What goes around comes around.
1997
Washington Times
17 May D2
Retired Army Col. David Hackworth is apparently learning a lesson about that old saw, ‘What goes around comes around.’
fate and fatalism
;
retribution
1974Donald writes no More
xv.
No one can say why Donald Goines and Shirley Sailor were murdered. The ghetto philosophy, ‘what goes around comes around’, is the only answer most people can give. It is probably the answer Donald Goines himself would have provided.
1982
Ethics
108
At this juncture another, more recent, adage springs to mind: What goes around comes around. It is, all in all, a terrific statement, and I know a lot of people who would turn handsprings if only they could be assured it was ture.
1985
Washington Post
23 Oct. C13
‘What goes around comes around,’ a gay man said, and people at City Hall spoke of ‘poetic justice’, or retribution long deserved.
1989
Washington Times
19 Apr. F1
No sooner had the royal accusers sent Louis XVI and his queen to the guillotine, than they themselves were being hoist onto the tumbrels by men whose own heads would later drop into the basket. What goes around comes around.
1997
Washington Times
17 May D2
Retired Army Col. David Hackworth is apparently learning a lesson about that old saw, ‘What goes around comes around.’
fate and fatalism;
retribution
goes
When the GOING gets tough, the tough get going
A favourite family saying of Joseph P. Kennedy, US politician, businessman, and father of the late President.
1962
‘
Honey Fitz
’ xx.
Joe [Kennedy] made his children stay on their toes … He would bear down on them and tell them, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’
1970
New Yorker
3 Oct. 33
Baron Marcel Bich, the millionaire French pen magnate probably spoke for them all last month when he said, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going!’ (‘Quand le chemin devient dur, les durs se cheminent!’)
1979
Last Good Kiss
xvi.
‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going?’ she asked slyly. ‘Make fun if you want to, but that's what character is all about.’
opportunity, taken
;
politics
;
stress
1962‘
Honey Fitz
’ xx.
Joe [Kennedy] made his children stay on their toes … He would bear down on them and tell them, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’
1970
New Yorker
3 Oct. 33
Baron Marcel Bich, the millionaire French pen magnate probably spoke for them all last month when he said, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going!’ (‘Quand le chemin devient dur, les durs se cheminent!’)
1979
Last Good Kiss
xvi.
‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going?’ she asked slyly. ‘Make fun if you want to, but that's what character is all about.’
opportunity, taken;
politics
;
stress
GOLD may be bought too dear
1546Dialogue of Proverbs
II. vii. 14
Well (quoth she) a man maie bie golde to dere.
1642
Holy State
II. xxi.
Fearing to find the Proverb true, That Gold may be bought too dear, they returned to their ships.
1889
Pleasures of Life
(ed. 2) II. ii.
It is well worth having .. but it does not requite too great a sacrifice. A wise proverb tells us that gold may be bought too dear.
money;
value
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