A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

GOD makes the back to the burden

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  1822 COBBETT Weekly Register 12 Jan. 94 As ‘God has made the back to the burthen,’ so the clay and coppice people make the dress to the stubs and bushes. 1839 DICKENS Nicholas Nickleby xviii. Heaven suits the back to the burden. 1939 E. F. BENSON Trouble for Lucia ii. ‘Spare yourself a bitty’ I’ve said, and always she’s replied ‘Heaven fits the back to the burden.’ 1979 E. ANTHONY Grave of Truth viii. So many questions and nobody to answer them; it was a true penance for her. ..God made the back for the burden. .. An Irish nun.. had taught them that saying from her native land. ■ providence; trouble
  

GOD never sends mouths but He sends meat

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  1377 LANGLAND Piers Plowman B. XIV 39 For lente neuere was lyf but lyflode [livelihood] were shapen. 1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs I. iv. B1 God neuer sendeth mouthe, but he sendeth meat. 1832 J. P. KENNEDY Swallow Barn I. xxviii. God never sends mouths.. but he sends meat, and any man who has sense enough to be honest, will never want wit to know how to live. 1905 A. MACLAREN Gospel according to St. Matthew I. 103 We are meant to be righteous, and shall not in vain desire to be so. God never sends mouths but He sends meat to fill them. "hunger; providence
  

GOD sends meat, but the Devil sends cooks

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  1542 A. BORDE Dietary of Health xi. It is a common prouerbe, God may sende a man good meate, but the deuyll may sende an euyll coke to dystrue it. c 1607 T. DELONEY Thomas of Reading B3 God sends meat, and the diuel sends cookes. 1738 SWIFT Polite Conversation ii. 155 This Goose is quite raw: Well, God sends Meat, but the Devil sends Cooks. 1822 SCOTT Nigel III. iii. That homely proverb that men taunt my calling with,—’God sends good meat, but the devil sends cooks.’ 1979 Country Life 13 Sept. 807 Another old saying.. that God sends good meat but the devil sends the cooks. ■food and drink