A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

Don’t SELL the skin till you have caught the bear
The origin of this saying is to be found in a fable added by Lorenzo Astemio (Laurentius Abstemius) to a collection of Aesop’s fables compiled in the 1490s.

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  1578 H. WOTTON tr. J. Yver Courtly Controversie of Cupids Cantles N4V His eyes, greedily fixed vpon his faire Mistresse, solde vnto him (as men say) the skin before the beast is taken. 1580 LYLY Euphues & his England ii. 53 I trusted so much, that I solde the skinne before the Beaste was taken. 1641 CHARLES I Comment (on Remonstrance) 1 Dec. in Rushworth Historical Collections (1692) III. v. 1,436 We must not dispose of the Bears skin till the Bear be dead. 1692 R. L’ESTRANGE Aesop (ed. 3) 270 He bade me have a care for the future, to make sure of the bear before I sell his skin. 1721 KELLY Scottish Proverbs 376 You sell the Bear Skin on his Back. 1999 R. CARPENTER Scarlet Pimpernel (BBC TV, episode 1) [CHAUVELIN:] The trap is set, and he’s about to walk into it. [MARGUERITE:] Don’t sell the skin till you’ve caught the bear. "optimism
  

sell see also BUY in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest.
seller see the BUYER has need of a hundred eyes, the seller of but one.
send see never send a BOY to do a man’s job; GOD never sends mouths but He sends meat; GOD sends meat, but the Devil sends cooks.
SEPTEMBER blow soft, till the fruit’s in the loft

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  1571 T. TUSSER Husbandry (rev. ed.) F2 September blowe soft, Till fruite be in loft. 1732 T. FULLER Gnomologia no. 6214 September, blow soft, Till the Fruit’s in the
  

Loft. 1906 E. HOLDEN Country Diary of Edwardian Lady (1977) 121 September blow soft,—Till the fruit’s in the loft. 1928 Daily Mail 3 Sept. 10 ‘September blow soft till the apple’s in the loft’ is what we desire of this traditionally beautiful month. "weather lore