The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (463 page)

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The RICH man has his ice in the summer and the poor man gets his in the winter

1921
in
Morning Telegraph
(NY) 27 Oct. 7
There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours … These ginks who argue that way hold that because the rich man gets ice in the Summer and the poor man gets it in the winter things are breaking even for both.
a
1957
First Four Years
(1971) ii.
Everything evens up in the end … The rich man has his ice in the summer and the poor man gets his in the winter.
1986
Jersey Tomatoes
xi.
The rich get ice in the summer and the poor get it in the winter, so some people figure everyone gets an even break.

equality
;
poverty
;
riches

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If you can't RIDE two horses at once, you shouldn't be in the circus

James Maxton, to whom this saying is attributed (quot. 1935), was a British Independent Labour Party MP (1932–46).

1935
James Maxton
xiv.
Maxton made a brief intervention in the debate to say .. that he did not believe it was necessary to pass a resolution for disaffiliation [of the I.L.P. from the Labour Party]. He had been told that he could not ride two horses. ‘My reply to that is’, he said .. ‘that if my friend cannot ride two horses—what's he doing in the bloody circus?’
1979
Daily Telegraph
15 Mar. 15
A producer who ‘can't ride two horses at the same time shouldn't be in the circus.’ .. Current affairs television should be both serious and entertaining.
1979
New Society
27 Sept. 666
If you can't ride two horses at once, you shouldn't be in the bloody circus.

efficiency and inefficiency
;
stress

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