A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

rope see also the man who has once been BITTEN by the snake fears every piece of rope.
No ROSE without a thorn
Cf. CLAUDIAN In Nuptias Honorii.. Fescennina iv. 10 Armat spina rosas, mella tegunt apes, a thorn arms roses, bees conceal their honey.

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  1430-40 LYDGATE Bochas Prol. ix There is no rose.. in garden, but there be sum thorne. 1579 LYLY Euphues i. 184 The sweetest Rose hath his prickel. 1603 J. FLORIO tr. Montaigne’s Essays III. iii. 68 But no good without paines; no Roses without prickles. 1670 J. RAY English Proverbs 138 No rose without a thorn. 1922 JOYCE Ulysses Queer the number of pins they always have. No roses without thorns. 1965 H. ACTON Old Lamps 218 ‘But everything depends on the baby. What a bore.’ ‘No rose without a thorn, eh?’ "good and evil
  

roses see he who PLANTS thorns should not expect to gather roses; do not grieve that ROSE-TREES have thorns.
Do not grieve that ROSE-TREES have thorns, rather rejoice that thorny bushes bear roses
Arab proverb.

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  1965 S. RADHAKRISHNAN ‘Failure of the UN and nuclear weapons’ (on www. indianembassy.org) We have to protect humanity against war. Peace is not the absence of war.. It is the disarmament of minds that is called for. The future is not all bleak. An old Arab proverb says, ‘Do not grieve that rose trees have thorns, rather rejoice that thorny bushes bear roses’. 2005 C. VIDYA SAGAR ‘Independence of judiciary under cloud’ in Daily Excelsior 15 Mar. (on www.southasianmedia.ne) ‘Do not grieve that rose trees have thorns, rather rejoice that thorny bushes have roses.’ Mr Hans Raj Bhardwaj, right from the day he took over as Union Law Minister, has been, day in and day out, grieving that there is malfunctioning of judicial system in our country. ■ content and discontent