A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Paul see if SAINT Paul’s day be fair and clear, it will betide a happy year.
paved see the ROAD to hell is paved with good intentions.
PAY beforehand was never well served
□1591 J. FLORIO Second Fruits 39 He that paieth afore hand, hath neuer his worke well done. 1721 J. KELLY Scottish Proverbs 278 Pay beforehand was never well serv’d.It is common to see.. Labourers, to go about a piece of Work with great Uneasiness, which is to pay a just Debt. 1786 G. WASHINGTON Letter 7 Jan. in Writings (1938) XXVIII. 370 I have had some reason to remember an old adage, that one of the bad paymasters is him that pays before hand. 1819 SCOTT Bride of Lammermoor iii. ‘Your honour is the bad pay-master,’ he said, ‘who pays before it is done.’ 1928 A. C. BROWN Dr. Glazebrook’s Revenge xi. The old Scots adage that ‘fore-hand payments mak’ hint-hand wark’. ^employers and employees; work
He that cannot PAY, let him pray
□1611 R. COTGRAVE Diet. French & English s.v. Argent, He that cannot pay let him pray. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 6362 He that cannot pay, Let him pray. 1954 R. STOUT Three Men Out v. They’re quotations from things. One of them says, ‘He that cannot pay, let him pray.’ "money; poverty
If you PAY peanuts, you get monkeys
Peanuts in the sense of ‘a small sum of money’ (esp. when considered as inadequate payment) originated as mid 20th-cent. US slang.
□1966 L. COULTHARD in Director Aug. 228 Shareholders want the best available businessmen to lead the companies and recognise that you get what you pay for. If you pay in peanuts, you must expect to get monkeys. 1979 P. ALEXANDER Show me Hero iii. ‘That’s forty thousand we’re giving away. Seems an awful lot.’ ‘If you pay peanuts,’ said Ashman, ‘you get monkeys.’ 1979 Guardian 11 Sept. 30 The companies’ chief negotiator.. was greeted with shouts of’if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys’. 1994 S. REUBEN Origin and Cause xvii. 107 ‘How much is..this photo-enhancement going to cost my client?’ ‘A bundle. .. But in my experience, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.’ ■ employers and employees; money
pay see also (noun) NO cure, no pay; (verb) CRIME doesn’t pay; they that DANCE must pay the fiddler; DEATH pays all debts; SPEAK not of my debts unless you mean to pay them; the THIRD time pays for all.