The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (498 page)

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Authors: John Andrew Simpson,

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
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You can't make a SILK purse out of a sow's ear
1518
Eclogues
(EETS) v. 360
None can .. make goodly silke of a gotes flece.
1579
Ephemerides of Phialo
62
V
Seekinge .. too make a silke purse of a Sowes eare, that when it shoulde close, will not come togeather.
1672
English & Latin Proverbs
44
You cannot make a .. silk purse of a sows ear; a scholar of a blockhead.
1834
Peter Simple
I. xii.
The master .. having been brought up in a collier, he could not be expected to be very refined …‘It was impossible to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.’
1915
Rainbow
i.
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, as he told his mother very early, with regard to himself.
1959
Eating People is Wrong
ii.
For the mass of men there is not too much to be said or done; you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
possibility and impossibility
It's a SIN to steal a pin
1875
Proverbial Folk-Lore
129
It is a sin To steal a pin, as we, all of us, used to be informed in the nursery.
1945
Lark Rise
xiii.
Children were taught to ‘know it's a sin to steal a pin’ .. when they brought home some doubtful finding.
1956
Unappointed Rounds
xvii.
I brought that boy up .. and I taught him to be honest… I used to say to him. ‘'Tis a sin to steal a penny or a pin,’ and he'd say it after me.
honesty and dishonesty
;
theft

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