A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

He is a GOOD dog who goes to church

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  1826 SCOTT Woodstock I. i Bevis.. fell under the proverb which avers, ‘He is a good dog which goes to church’; for.. he behaved himself.. decorously. a 1895 F. LOCKER- LAMPSON My Confidences (1896) 44 Tis said, by men of deep research, He’s a good dog who goes to church. "conduct
  

GOOD fences make good neighbours

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  1640 E. ROGERS Letter in Winthrop Papers (1944) IV 282 A good fence helpeth to keepe peace between neighbours; but let vs take heed that we make not a high stone wall, to keepe vs from meeting. 1815 H. H. BRACKENRIDGE Modern Chivalry (rev. ed.) IV. II. xiii. I was always with him [Jefferson] in his apprehensions of John Bull. .. Good fences restrain fencebreaking beasts, and.. preserve good neighbourhoods. 1914 R. FROST North of Boston 12 My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbours.’ 1978 T. SHARPE Throwback x. ‘Hadn’t you better go and investigate?’.. Lockhart shook his head. ‘Strong fences make good neighbours.’ 2001 Washington Times 7 Sept. A4 Mr. Fox insists that the United States overhaul immigration by the end of this year. .. He said he doesn’t believe the American folk wisdom that good fences make good neighbors. ■ harmony and disharmony; neighbours
  

A GOOD horse cannot be of a bad colour

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  a 1628 J. CARMICHAELL Proverbs in Scots no. 1621 There is gude horse of all hewis. 1653 I. WALTON Compleat Angler iv. It is observed by some, that there is no good horse of a bad colour. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 1713 Good Horses can’t be of a bad Colour. 1891 J. L. KIPLING Beast & Man viii. ‘A good horse is never of a bad colour’.. is wildly irreverent from the Oriental point of view. 1912 Spectator 28 Dec. 1094 Virgil.. did not hold that ‘a good horse cannot be of a bad colour’; he liked bays and grays. "appearance, significant; horse lore