A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

brain see an IDLE brain is the Devil’s workshop.
brass see where there’s MUCK there’s brass.
None but the BRAVE deserve the fair
The pair referred to in Dryden’s poem (Alexander’s Feast) are Alexander the Great and the Athenian courtesan Thais.

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  1697 DRYDEN Poems (1958) III. 148 Happy, happy, happy Pair!.. None but the Brave deserves the Fair. 1829 P. EGAN Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 354 The tender sex.. feeling the good old notion that ‘none but the brave deserve the fair’, were sadly out of temper. 1873 TROLLOPE Phineas Redux II. xiii. All the proverbs were on his side. ‘None but the brave deserve the fair,’ said his cousin. 1978 F. WELDON Praxis xii. She frequented the cafe where the Rugger set hung out, and on a Saturday, after closing hours, could be seen making for the downs, laughing heartily and noisily in the company of one or other of the brave, who clearly deserved the fair. “courage; just deserts
  

BRAVE men lived before Agamemnon
The exploits of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, in the Trojan War were celebrated by Homer and by the tragic poets of ancient Greece. The point, made first by Horace, was that heroes need writers to commemorate them if they are to achieve eternal fame: HORACE Odes IV. ix. 25 vixere fortes ante Agamemnona multi, many brave men lived before Agamemnon.

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  1616 JONSON Forest VIII. 114 There were braue men, before Aiax or Idomen, or all the store That Homer brought to Troy. 1819 BYRON Don Juan I. V. Brave men were living before Agamemnon And since, exceeding valorous and sage. 1980 Times 23 June 16 Brave men lived before Agamemnon, lots of them. But on all of them.. eternal night lies heavy, because they have left no records behind them. ■ courage; fame and obscurity
  

brave see also (adjective used as noun) FORTUNE favours the brave; (verb) ROBIN Hood could brave all weathers but a thaw wind.