A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

foolish see PENNY wise and pound foolish.
FOOLS and bairns should never see half-done work
They may mistakenly judge the quality of the finished article from its awkwardness while it is being produced.
□1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 108 Fools should not see half done Work. Many fine Pieces of Work will look.. aukward when it is a doing. 1818 SCOTT Letter Dec. (1933) V. 265 ‘Bairns and fools’.. according to our old canny proverb should never see half done work. 1913 A. & J. LANG Highways & Byways in Border ix. To the lay eye improvement is yet barely perceptible. ‘Fools and bairns’, however, they tell us, ‘should never see half-done work.’ 1934 V. MACCLURE Death on Set ii. He has never really liked anybody seeing the roughs except the technical staff. Said it gave the players ideas they were better without. ‘Fools and children, and unfinished work,’ you know. ■fools; work
FOOLS ask questions that wise men cannot answer
□1666 G. TORRIANO Italian Proverbs 249 One fool may ask more than seven wise men can answer. 1738 SWIFT Polite Conversation ii. 156 ‘Miss, can you tell which is the white Goose?’.. ‘They say, a Fool will ask more Questions than the wisest body can answer.’ 1821 SCOTT Pirate II. v. Bryce Snaelsfoot is a cautious man. .. He knows a fool may ask more questions than a wise man cares to answer. 1871 J. S. JONES Life of J. S. Batkins liv. Bean appeared always to be fond of Amanda. .. I asked him one day. .. He looked at me, and said, ‘Batkins, fools ask questions that wise men cannot answer.’ 1973 Amarillo Globe-Times 27 Mar. 20/1 We are well acquainted with the old adage that fools can ask questions which wise men cannot answer. Yet we would pose the question simply —‘Why?’ Why do young Americans use heroin? ■fools; wisdom
FOOLS build houses and wise men live in them
The terser form of this saying—fools build and wise men buy—can be applied to property other than houses (see quot. 1997).
□1670 J. RAY English Proverbs 91 Fools build houses, and wise men buy them. 1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 110 Fools Big [build] Houses and wise Men buy them. I knew a Gentleman buy 2000 1. worth of Land, build a House upon it, and sell both House and Land to pay the Expences of his building. 1875 A. B. CHEALES Proverbial Folk­Lore 43 Fools build houses, and wise men live in them is another proverb on this subject; it is partly true. 1911 W. F. BUTLER Autobiography xix. The adage says that fools build houses for other men to live in. Certainly the men who build the big house of Empire for England usually get the attic.. for their own lodgment. 1934 J. ALEXANDER Murder at Eclipse III. ii. 86 On his retirement, the first baron did not build himself a palace such as he could well have afforded. Perhaps he remembered the old adage that ‘fools build and wise men buy.’ 1997 Country Life 14 Aug. 28 Arthur Ransome, self-mocking, said of boating folk: ‘Fools build and wise men buy.’ There is a similar put-down of people who breed their own horses ■fools; home