A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

peanut see if you PAY peanuts, you get monkeys.
pear see WALNUTS and pears you plant for your heirs.
Do not throw PEARLS to swine
With allusion to MATTHEW vii. 6 (AV) Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine. Often in the phrase to cast pearls before swine.

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  1340 Ayenbite of Inwit (EETS) 152 Thet we ne thrauwe naght oure preciouse stones touore the zuyn. 1362 LANGLAND Piers Plowman A. xi. Noli mittere Margeri, perles Among hogges. 1526 Pilgrimage of Perfection II. iii. The holy fathers thought it nat expedient to disclose the secrete misteryes to euery worldly person. .. Cast not your perles before hogges. 1550 R. CROWLEY Epigrams A3^V Before suche swyne no pearles maye be caste. 1816 S. SMITH Letter in S. Holland Memoir (1855) II. 134 Elgin has done a very useful thing in taking them [the Elgin Marbles] away from the Turks. Do not throw pearls to swine. 1925 WODEHOUSE Sam the Sudden xi. ‘Young women do not interest me.’ The proverb about casting pearls before swine occurred to Sam. 2001 Spectator 3 Nov. 8 I am always inclined to toss such people a copy of The Way of All Flesh to show them what great late-Victorian fiction-writing was really about, but that would be pearls
  

before swine. "gratitude and ingratitude; waste
A PECK of March dust is worth a king’s ransom
The month of March is traditionally wet and blustery. A peck in former times was a dry measure of two gallons. Thomas Fuller, discussing this saying in his Worthies of England (1662, p. 87), links the ‘king’s ransom’ to the £100,000 raised in 1193-4 to pay for the release of King Richard I, who, on his way home from crusading in the Holy Land, was being held captive in Germany.

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  1533 J. HEYWOOD Play of Weather D1 And now to mynde there is one olde prouerbe come: ‘One bushell of march dust is worth a kynges raunsome.’ 1685 R. BOYLE Discourse of Causes of Insalubrity of Air 55 It is proverbially said in England, that a Peck of March Dust is worth a King’s Ransom: So infrequent is dry Weather, during that Month. 1836 E. HOWARD Rattlin the Reefer III. viii. A spoonful of the soup to-day will be worth a king’s ransom—a peck of March dust! pooh! 1936 H. C. BAILEY Clue for Mr. Fortune 36 The flower borders.. were planted with bush roses.. stunted by the rigours of that grim March. .. ‘Bushel of March dust worth a king’s ransom,’ Reggie murmured. 1978 R. WHITLOCK Calendar of Country Customs iii. [The farmer] values dry, cold weather, such as often occurs in late February and March. ‘A peck of dust in March is worth a king’s ransom,’ is still an oft-quoted proverb. "weather lore