The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (87 page)

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Authors: John Andrew Simpson,

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
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Never CHOOSE your women or your linen by candlelight
1573
Garden of Pleasure
51
Choose not a woman, nor linnen clothe by the candle.
1678
English Proverbs
(ed. 2) 64
Neither Women nor linnen by candle-light.
1737
Poor Richard's Almanack
(May)
Fine linnen, girls and gold so bright. Chuse not to take by candlelight.
1928
Bystander
17 Oct. 136
The title [‘By Candle Light’] is explained by the grandmotherly aphorism: ‘Choose neither women nor linen by candlelight.’
1980
Woman's Journal
Dec. 105
‘Never choose your women or your linen by candlelight,’ they used to say: a testimony to the soft, flattering glow that candles always give.
appearance, deceptive
;
women

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