The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (300 page)

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KEEP your shop and your shop will keep you

Parodied by the American actress Mae West (1892–1980) in the 1937 movie
Every Day's a Holiday
: I always say, keep a diary and some day it'll keep you.

1605
et al.
Eastward Ho
A2
^VI .. garnished my shop .. with good wholsome thriftie sentences; As, ‘Touchstone, keepe thy shopp, and thy shoppe will keepe thee’.
1712
Spectator
14 Oct.
Sir William Turner .. would say, Keep your Shop and your Shop will keep you.
1759
in
Bee
17 Nov. 214
I would earnestly recommend this adage to every mechanic in London, ‘Keep your shop, and your shop will keep you’.
1905
Kipps
III. iii.
A little bell jangled. ‘Shop!’ said Kipps. ‘That's right. Keep a shop and the shop'll keep you’.
1943
Western Star
I. 20
I keep my shop but my shop doth not keep me. Shall I give such chances [of making a fortune] the go-by and walk the roads?
1976
Wednesday Rabbi got Wet
vii.
‘When I was home, Dad cared a lot more about the store than he did about me,’ he said bitterly. She nodded … ‘That's because a store, if you take care of it, it takes care of you. Your father lives from that store, and your grandfather before him.’