A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

measure see also MAN is the measure of all things.
MEAT and mass never hindered man
□a 1628 J. CARMICHAELL Proverbs in Scots no. 134 A mease [mess = serving] of meat hinderit never man. 1639 J. CLARKE Paramiologia Anglo-Latina 273 Meat and mat-tens hinder no mans journey. 1641 D. FERGUSSON Scottish Proverbs (STS) no. 644
Meat and masse never hindred no man. 1817 SCOTT Rob Roy III. ii. ‘What the devil are ye in sic a hurry for?’ said Garschattachin; ‘meat and mass never hindered wark.’ 1893 R. L. STEVENSON Catriona I. xix. Meat and mass never hindered man. The mass I cannot afford you, for we are all good Protestants. But the meat I press on your attention. ■ Christianity; food and drink
One man’s MEAT is another man’s poison
Cf. LUCRETIUS De Rerum Natura IV. 637 quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum, what is food to one person may be bitter poison to others.
□c 1576 T. WHYTHORNE Autobiography (1961) 203 On bodies meat iz an otherz poizon. 1604 Plato’s Cap B4 That ould moth-eaten Prouerbe.. One mans meate, is another mans poyson. a 1721 M. PRIOR Dialogues of Dead (1907) 246 May I not nauseate the food which you Covet; and is it not even a Proverb, that what is meat to one Man is Poyson to another. 1883 TROLLOPE Autobiography x. It is more true of novels than perhaps of anything else, that one man’s food is another man’s poison. 1986 J. S. SCOTT Knife between Ribs xvi. ‘I don’t see what he sees in her.’ ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison.’ 2000 Washington Post 9 Mar. C2 If one man’s meat is another man’s poison, then by the same token one man’s joke is another man’s snooze. ■ idiosyncrasy; taste
meat see also you BUY land you buy stones; GOD never sends mouths but He sends meat; GOD sends meat, but the Devil sends cooks; the NEARER the bone, the sweeter the meat.