A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

The WISH is father to the thought

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  1597-8 SHAKESPEARE Henry IV, Pt. 2 IV. v. 93 I never thought to hear you speak again.—Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought. 1783 P. VAN SCHAACK Letter 5 Jan. in H. C. Van Schaack Life (1842) 321 My ‘wish is father to the thought’. 1860 TROLLOPE Framley Parsonage III. xiv. The wish might be father to the thought..but the thought was truly there. 1940 E. F. BENSON Final Edition iii. She spied a smallish man..walking away from us. The wish was father to the thought. ‘Ah, there is Lord Ripon,’ she said. .. He turned round. It wasn’t Lord Ripon at all. 1980 A. T. ELLIS Birds of Air (1983) 40 Somewhere in that area of the human mind where the wish is father to the thought activity was taking place. 1988 Washington Times 13 Jan. A 13 The wish is father to the thought, and that timeless truism fits federal judges like a glove. ■ wanting and having
  

If WISHES were horses, beggars would ride

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  a 1628 J. CARMICHAELL Proverbs in Scots no. 140 And [if] wishes were horses pure [poor] men wald ryde. 1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 178 If Wishes were Horses, Beggars would ride. 1844 J. O. HALLIWELL Nursery Rhymes of England (ed. 4) 501 If wishes were horses, Beggars would ride; If turnips were watches, I would wear one by my side. 1912 British Weekly 18 Jan. 480 If wishes were horses Unionists would ride rapidly into office. 1992 A. LAMBERT Rather English Marriage (1993) ix. 153 ‘If wishes were horses then beggars should ride,’ he told her. ‘Don’t be too sure.’ 2002 Washington Times 14 Aug. B5 Not only do I remember my mother quoting the same phrase to me, she had another one: ‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.’ Both are from a bygone generation that held no truck with the ‘if only’ and ‘I wish’ mentality. ■ wanting and having