A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

silence see also SPEECH is silver, but silence is golden.
You can’t make a SILK purse out of a sow’s ear

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  1518 A. BARCLAY Eclogues (EETS) v. 360 None can.. make goodly silke of a gotes flece. 1579 S. GOSSON Ephemerides of Phialo 62^V Seekinge.. too make a silke purse of a Sowes eare, that when it shoulde close, will not come togeather. 1672 W. WALKER English & Latin Proverbs 44 You cannot make a .. silk purse of a sows ear; a scholar of a blockhead. 1834 MARRYAT Peter Simple I. xii. The master.. having been brought up in a collier, he could not be expected to be very refined. .. ‘It was impossible to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.’ 1915 D. H. LAWRENCE Rainbow i. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, as he told his mother very early, with regard to himself. 1985 M. SLUNG Momilies 83 You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. ■possibility and impossibility
  

silk see also an APE’S an ape, a varlet’s a varlet, though they be clad in silk or scarlet.
silly see ASK a silly question and you get a silly answer.
silver see every CLOUD has a silver lining; SPEECH is silver, but silence is golden.
It’s a SIN to steal a pin

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  1875 A. B. CHEALES Proverbial Folk-Lore 129 It is a sin To steal a pin, as we, all of us, used to be informed in the nursery. 1945 F. THOMPSON Lark Rise xiii. Children were taught to ‘know it’s a sin to steal a pin’.. when they brought home some doubtful finding. 1956 D. M. DISNEY Unappointed Rounds xvii. I brought that boy up.. and I taught him to be honest. .. I used to say to him. ‘’Tis a sin to steal a penny or a pin,’ and he’d say it after me. "honesty and dishonesty; theft
  

sin see also CHARITY covers a multitude of sins; OLD sins cast long shadows.