A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

NOTHING venture, nothing have
□c1385 CHAUCER Troilus & Criseyde II. 807 He which that nothing undertaketh, Nothing n’acheveth, be hym looth or deere [be it hateful or pleasing to him]. 1546 J. HEYWOOD Dialogue of Proverbs I. xi. E1 Noght venter noght haue. 1559 T. COOPER Bibliotheca (ed. 3) s.v. Fortis, Fortune foretherethe [furthers] bolde aduenturers, nothyng venture, nothyng haue. 1791 J. BOSWELL Life of Johnson II. 166 I am, however, generally for trying ‘Nothing venture, nothing have’. 1841 DICKENS Old Curiosity Shop I. xxix. I’m sorry the gentleman’s daunted—nothing venture, nothing have—but the gentleman knows best. 1957 R. DOWNING All Change Here v. 36 ‘Jonah, aren’t you taking a hell of a risk?’ ‘Of course. We all are. But then “nothing venture nothing have.”’ ■boldness; wanting and having; risk
nothing see also BELIEVE nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see; BLESSED is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed; CIVILITY costs nothing; the FROG in the well knows nothing of the sea; there is nothing like LEATHER; you don’t get SOMETHING for nothing; SOMETHING is better than nothing; the SUN loses nothing by shining into a puddle.
notice see LONG foretold, long last.
There’s NOWT so queer as folk
Nowt is a dialect variant of ‘nought’ i.e. ‘nothing’.

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  1905 English Dialect Diet. IV. 304 There’s nowt sae queer as folk, Old saying. 1939 J. WOOD Letter 30 May in J. Chambers Letters (1979) 186 I trust you.. find plenty of interest in people & their doings. Really ‘there is nowt so funny as folk’. 1955 R. E. MEGARRYMiscellany-at-Law I. 72 There is the infinite charm and variety of human nature itself: ‘there’s nowt so queer as folk.’ 1993 B. D’AMATO Hard Women xxi. 243 ‘You never really know anything about people. As LJ sometimes says, “There’s nowt so strange as folk.” It’s not like you can work people out on a chessboard.’ 2002 Oldie Apr. 57 . . and his creed that everyone is good copy. Or, as they would put it up North, that there’s nowt so queer as folk. ■idiosyncrasy