The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (82 page)

Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs Online

Authors: John Andrew Simpson,

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
5.68Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
A CHANGE is as good as a rest
1890
in
Lippincott's Monthly Mag.
Feb. x. 198 Well,
I gave my mind a thorough rest by plunging into a chemical analysis. One of our greatest statesmen has said that a change of work is the best rest. So it is.
1895
Randigal Rhymes
59
Change of work is as good as touchpipe [a short interval of rest].
1903
Collectanea
III. 439
Change of work is rest. (Manx.)
1951
Now or Never
ii.
On the principle that a change of work is a rest, we redecorated the bathroom … We came to the conclusion that the saying is a fallacy.
1967
Death enters Lists
viii.
There would be no fish-bits for Whiskers .. but she could buy him some fish-pieces; and a change was as good as a rest, she remembered.
1984
Thin Woman
xiii.
Me old grandpa used to say ‘a change is as good as a rest’, and at my time of life variety don't often come aknocking.
1991
’
Only Game
xv. 88
I had to go to the dentist's, so Jane got landed with him instead, and the silly old sod probably thought a change is as good as a rest, and expected Jane to get on with it.
change
;
recreation
CHARITY begins at home
c
1383
in Wyclif
English Works
(EETS) 78
Charite schuld bigyne at hem-self.
a
1625
Wit without Money
v. ii.
Charity and beating begins at home.
1659
Appeal of Injured Innocence
I. 25
Charity begins, but doth not end, at home … My Church-History .. began with our own Domestick affairs … I intended .. to have proceeded to forrain Churches.
1748
Roderick Random
I. vi.
The world would do nothing for her if she should come to want—charity begins at home.
1910
‘’
Reginald in Russia
2
With her, as with a great many of her sex, charity began at homeliness and did not generally progress much farther.
1935
Mapp & Lucia
vii.
Besides, the loss of Foljambe
had
occurred to him first. Comfort, like charity, began at home.
1985
Plain Old Man
xiv.
‘You know Aunt Emma never gives anybody a complimentary ticket. If she did … there'd be no money raised for charity.’ ‘I thought charity began at home.’
1996
Washington Post
30 July C16
True, charity begins at home, but it shouldn't end there.
charity
;
home

Other books

The Red Magician by Lisa Goldstein
When You Fall... by Ruthie Robinson
Worthy of Love by Carly Phillips
Antiques Roadkill by Barbara Allan
Leaving Protection by Will Hobbs
A Ghost in the Machine by Caroline Graham
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Bingham