The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (320 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
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If you LIE down with dogs, you will get up with fleas
An assertion that human failings, such as dishonesty and foolishness, are contagious. Cf. L.
qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent
, they who lie with dogs will rise with fleas.
1573
Garden of Pleasure
103
V
Chi va dormir con i cani
,
si leua con i pulici
. He that goeth to bedde wyth Dogges, aryseth with fleas.
1640
Outlandish Proverbs
no. 343
Hee that lies with the dogs, riseth with fleas.
1721
Scottish Proverbs
129
He that sleeps with Dogs, must rise with Fleas. If you keep Company with base and unworthy Fellows, you will get some Ill by them.
1791
Rights of Kings
32
To this great truth, a Universe agrees, ‘He who lies down with dogs, will rise with fleas’.
1842
Jack Hinton
xxii.
If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas, and that's the fruits of travelling with a fool.
1931
tr.
Kober's Circus Nights & Circus Days
ix.
It's like this; if you go to bed with your dogs, you're bound to get up with fleas. If you once work for a small salary, the news gets round.
1991
Spectator
9 Nov. 8
I have few genial feelings towards the
Sunday Times
, and it is possible that I was thinking of its editor when I wrote .. of the danger that those who lie with dogs will rise with fleas.
1996
Washington Post
26 Feb. B2
[W]e do well to bear in mind three axioms so hoary that their essential truth may no longer be adequately grasped. The first is ‘He who lies down with dogs rises with fleas.’
associates
LIFE begins at forty
1932
Life begins at Forty
i.
Life begins at forty. This is the revolutionary outcome of our New Era … Today it is half a truth. Tomorrow it will be an axiom.
1945
Zionist Review
14 Dec. 6
Among Palestine pioneers, life does not ‘begin at forty’.
1952
Hour Awaits
142
Life begins at forty … I know you're only in your thirties, but it leaves a nice margin.
1990
Grave Undertaking
v.
Life begins at forty, she reminded herself—give or take a couple of years.
life
;
middle age

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