A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 14 A safe Conscience makes a sound Sleep. 1747 B. FRANKLIN Poor Richard’s Almanack (July) A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder. 1902 F. E. HULME Proverb Lore 216 A good conscience makes an easy couch. 1929 ‘P. OLDFELD’ Alchemy Murder ii. 18 [The bed] was hard and cold, and he found poor comfort in a copybook maxim which came back vaguely to him—something about a good conscience providing the softest pillow for a weary head. 1992 MIEDER Dict. American

Proverbs 112 A clean conscience is a good pillow. ■ conscience
CONSCIENCE makes cowards of us all
Quot. 1912 is a humorous perversion of the proverb. Cf. 1594 SHAKESPEARE Richard III I. iv. 133 Where’s thy conscience now?—I’ll not meddle with it—it makes a man a coward.

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  1600-1 SHAKESPEARE Hamlet III. i. 83 Conscience does make cowards of us all. 1697 VANBRUGH Provoked Wife v. 75 It mayn’t be amiss to deferr the Marriage till you are sure they [mortgages] are paid off. .. Guilty Consciences make Men Cowards. 1912 ‘SAKI’ Chronicles of Clovis 134 The English have a proverb, ‘Conscience makes cowboys of us all.’ 1941 H. G. WELLS You can’t be too Careful viii. ‘Why doesn’t he face it out?’.. ‘Conscience makes cowards of us all, Whittaker.’ 1976 J. S. SCOTT Poor Old Lady’s Dead iv. There was something funny here. Bloody funny. So the inspector, who lived, like any other policeman, with the sure knowledge that conscience doth make cowards of us all, began to lean. ■ conscience; cowardice
  

conscience see also a GUILTY conscience needs no accuser.
consent see SILENCE means consent.
CONSTANT dropping wears away a stone
Primarily used to mean that persistence will achieve a difficult or unlikely objective (but see also quots. 1874 and 1912). Continual frequently occurs instead of constant in the US. Cf. CHOERILUS OF SAMOS Fragments x. (Kinkel) •"••W ^wi-h-'¹ with
persistence a drop of water hollows out the stone; TIBULLUS Elegies I. iv. 18 longa dies molli saxa peredit aqua, length of time eats away stones with soft water.

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  a 1250 Ancrene Wisse (1962) 114 Lutle dropen thurleth (pierce) the flint the (that) ofte falleth theron. c 1477 CAXTON Jason (EETS) 26 The stone is myned and holowed by contynuell droppyng of water. 1591 SHAKESPEARE Henry VI, Pt. 3 III. ii. 50 He plies her hard; and much rain wears the marble. 1793 T. COKE Extracts from Journals III. ii. The Negroes of Barbadoes.. are much less prepared for the reception of genuine religion. But constant dropping, ‘tis said, will wear out a stone. 1841 DICKENS Old Curiosity Shop I. vii. As to Nell, constant dropping will wear away a stone, you know you may trust me as far as she is concerned. 1874 G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE Uncle John I. vi. Constant dropping wears away a stone; constant flirtation saps the character. 1912 D. H.
  

LAWRENCE Letter 19 Dec. (1962) I. 169 She says a woman can only have one husband. .. Constant dropping will wear away a stone, as my mother used to say. 1963 E. S. GARDNER Case of Mischievous Doll vii. The constant dripping water.. can wear away the toughest stone. “persistence