A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

NEAR is my shirt, but nearer is my skin
See also the preceding proverb. Cf. early 14th-cent. Fr. plus pres m’est char que n’est chemise, my skin is nearer to me than my shirt.

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  c 1570 in J. P. Collier Old Ballads (1840) 99 Neerer is my skin then shirte. 1631 J. HENSHAW Spare Hours of Meditations 63 His charitie beginnes at home, and there it ends; neere is his coat, but neerer is his skinne. 1712 J. ARBUTHNOT Lewis Baboon v. My Shirt (quoth he) is near me, but my Skin is nearer: Whilst I take care of the Welfare of other Folks, no body can blame me, to apply a little Balsam to my own Sores. 1890 T. H. HALL CAINEBondman II. X. ‘We can’t trust you.’.. ‘Not your own brother?’ said Jacob. ‘“Near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin,” as the saying is.’ ■ self-preservation
  

The NEARER the bone, the sweeter the meat

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  a1398 J. TREVISA tr. Bartholomew’s On Properties of Things (1975) xix. 1 The nerer the boon the swetter is the flesshe. a 1661 T. FULLER Worthies (Wales) 2 As the sweetest flesh is said to be nearest the bones, so most delicious vallies are interposed betwixt these Mountains. 1778 in B. Franklin Writings (1906) VIII. 258 We all agree the nearer the bone the sweeter the meat. 1945 F. THOMPSON Lark Rise i. ‘The nearer the bone the sweeter the meat,’ they used to say, and they were getting very near the bone. .. Their children.. would have to depend wholly upon whatever was carved for them from the communal joint. 1979 ‘TREVANIAN’Shiborni I. 38 A little skinny.. for my taste, but, like my ol’ daddy used to say: the closer the bone, the sweeter the meat. 1996 Washington Post 27 Nov. B7 He inserts the rib in his mouth. ‘The closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat,’ he notes. rvalue
  

The NEARER the church, the farther from God

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