A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Up like a ROCKET, down like a stick
The origin of this is Thomas Paine’s gibe about Edmund Burke’s oratory in a House of Commons debate on the subject of the French Revolution (see quot. 1792).

• 
  1792 T. PAINE Letter to Addressers on Late Proclamation 4 As he rose like a rocket, he fell like the stick. 1922 JOYCE Ulysses 364 Up like a rocket, down like a stick. 1974 A. MENEN Fonthill (1975) 53 I believe he died loaded with debts. Well, up like a rocket and down like the stick, I always say. 2002 Oldie Aug. 26 The value of the shares they had so vaingloriously promoted performed like the proverbial rocket and its equally proverbial stick. "ambition; pride
  

rod see SPARE the rod and spoil the child.
A ROLLING stone gathers no moss
Cf. ERASMUS Adages III. iv. r«?- a rolling stone does not
gather sea-weed; musco lapis volutus haud obducitur, a rolling stone is not covered with moss.

• 
  1362 LANGLAND Piers Plowman A. x. 101 Selden Moseth [becomes mossy] the Marbelston that men ofte treden. 1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs I. xi. D2 The rollyng stone neuer gatherth mosse. 1579 S. GOSSON Ephemerides of Phialo 5^VA rowling stone gathers no mosse, and a running hed wil neuer thriue. 1710 A. PHILIPS Pastorals II. 8 A Rolling Stone is ever bare of Moss. 1841 DICKENS Old Curiosity Shop II. xlviii. Your popular rumour, unlike the rolling stone of the proverb, is one which gathers a deal of moss in its wanderings up and down. 1979 Listener 5 July 16 A roadside notice.. said in one long line: Loose stones travel slowly. Well, I dare say they do: rolling stones, we know, gather no moss. ■ constancy and inconstancy; human nature
  

When in ROME, do as the Romans do
Cf. ST. AMBROSE, quoted in ST. AUGUSTINE Letters xxxvi. 32 (Migne), quando hic sum, non ieiuno sabbato; quando Romae sum, ieiuno sabbato, when I am here [i.e. Milan], I do not fast on Saturday; when I am in Rome, I fast on Saturday; 1660 quoted in verse form in JEREMY TAYLOR , Ductor Dubitantium (1851) I. i. 5. 5 cum fueris Romae, Romano vivito more, cum fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi, when you’re in Rome, then live in Roman fashion; when you’re elsewhere, then live as there they live.

• 
  c 1475 in Modern Philology (1940) XXXVIII. 122 Whan tho herd hat Rome Do so of ther the dome [when you are at Rome do as they do there]. 1552 R. TAVERNER tr. Erasmus’ Adages (ed. 3) 51^V That which is commonly in euery mans mouth in England Whan you art at Rome, do as they do at Rome. 1766 in L. H. Butterfield et al. Adams Family Correspondence (1963) I. 55 My advice to you is among the Romans, do as the romans do. 1836 E. HOWARD Rattlin the Reefer I. xxii. ‘Do at Rome as the Romans do,’ is the essence of all politeness. 1960 N. MITFORD Don’t tell Alfred viii. ‘I thought the English never bothered about protocol?’ ‘When in Rome, however, we do as the Romans do.’ 2001 Washington Post 8 Dec. A25 One woman stationed there [Saudi Arabia] who purports to be comfortable with the rules said, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ But how far does that go? To feeding the lions? ■ circumstances; conduct