The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (435 page)
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If you PLAY with fire you get burnt
The metaphorical phrase
to play with fire
, to tinker with something potentially dangerous, is also commonly found. Cf.
1655
H. VAUGHAN
Silex Scintillans
II
. 15 I played with fire, did counsell spurn,.. But never thought that fire would burn, Or that a soul could ake.
1884
Fenton Family
xiv.
If people will play with fire, they must expect to be burned by it some time. If I had not learned the game, and thought myself a good player, I'd never have lost Mother's money.
1980
Vatchman Switch
xxiv.
If you play with fire you get burnt. Shouldn't mess around in Crown Colonies.
action and consequence
;
peril
to play with fire
, to tinker with something potentially dangerous, is also commonly found. Cf.
1655
H. VAUGHAN
Silex Scintillans
II
. 15 I played with fire, did counsell spurn,.. But never thought that fire would burn, Or that a soul could ake.
1884Fenton Family
xiv.
If people will play with fire, they must expect to be burned by it some time. If I had not learned the game, and thought myself a good player, I'd never have lost Mother's money.
1980
Vatchman Switch
xxiv.
If you play with fire you get burnt. Shouldn't mess around in Crown Colonies.
action and consequence;
peril
play
You can't PLEASE everyone
1472Letters
16 May in Paston Letters (1971) I. 635
I am in serteyn the contrary is true—yt is nomore but that he can not plese all partys.
1616
Adages
45
One can hardly please all men.
1844
Journal
30 Apr. in Diaries 1835–47 (1956) 274
At Ward's about window—nothing done. Gastineau came up and don't like mine: can't please everybody.
1981
Daily Telegraph
16 May 18
The old adage, ‘you can't please everyone’, holds good.
conduct;
public relations
PLEASE your eye and plague your heart
c1617
Lovesick King
(1655)
III
. E3
V
She may please your eye a little .. but vex your heart.
1748
Roderick Random
II. xl.
Many a substantial farmer .. would be glad to marry her; but she was resolved to please her eye, if she should plague her heart.
1829
Advice to Young Men
III
. cxxic.
‘Please your eye and plague your heart’ is an adage that want of beauty invented, I dare say, more than a thousand years ago.
1876
Manchester Man
III. vi.
But I
will
marry him, mamma—I'll please my eye, if I plague my heart.
appearance;
beauty
;
love
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