A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

race see also SLOW and steady wins the race.
ragged see there’s many a GOOD cock come out of a tattered bag.
RAIN before seven, fine before eleven

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  1853 Notes & Queries 1st Ser. VIII. 218 Weather Proverbs. ..Rain before seven, fine before eleven. 1909 Spectator 20 Mar. 452 ‘Rain before seven, shine before eleven,’ is one of the most trustworthy of all country saws. 1940 B. DE VOTO (title) Rain before seven. 1961 THIRKELL & LEJUNE Three Score & Ten vii. The morning of the Agricultural dawned fair and bright. Naturally there were wisebeards who shook their heads over this and said Ar, that were a bad sign for certain sure, rain before seven, fine before eleven, and stands to reason the contrairy [sic] holds. ^weather lore
  

rain see also blessed are the DEAD that the rain rains on; if in FEBRUARY there be no rain, ‘tis neither good for hay nor grain; SAINT Swithun’s day if thou be fair for forty days it will remain.
It never RAINS but it pours
An archaic use of but to introduce an inevitable accompanying circumstance.

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  1726 J. ARBUTHNOT (title) It cannot rain but it pours. 1770 C. BURNEY Music, Men and Manners in France and Italy (1974) 22 July 54 The singers were the same as I had heard at the Burletta. .. ‘It never rains, but it pours!’ 1857 TROLLOPE Barchester Towers III. xii. A wife with a large fortune too. It never rains but it pours, does it, Mr. Thorne? 1979 L. BARNEA Reported Missing vii. I listened to the radio. Ben Gurion had suffered a stroke. .. It never rains but it pours. 2002 Washington Post 1 Mar. C5 When it rains, it pours, and Matt Sullivan is being flooded out by women who want to have sex with him. ■ misfortune
  

It is easier to RAISE the Devil than to lay him

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  1655 T. FULLER Church Hist. Britain x. iv. The Boy having gotten a habit of counterfeiting.. would not be undeviled by all their Exorcisms, so that the Priests raised up a Spirit which they could not allay. 1725 N. BAILEY tr. Erasmus’ Colloquies 202 ‘Tis an old Saying and a true, ‘Tis an easier Matter to raise the Devil, than ‘tis to lay him. 1845 MACAULAY Works (1898) XII. 136 Did you think, when, to serve your turn, you called the Devil up, that it was as easy to lay him as to raise him? 2003 National Post’s Financial Post & FP Investing (Canada) 5 May FP6 The latest revelation about Qwest wasn’t the only reminder that, as Erasmus once said, it’s easier to raise the devil than to lay him to rest. As a matter of fact, it was a banner week for fresh exposures of transgressions by prominent sinners, corporate and human alike. "good and evil; prudence