A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

1601 A. DENT Plain Man’s Pathway 64 Youth will be youthfull, when you haue saide all that you can. 1826 T. H. LISTER Granby II. vii. Girls will be girls. They like admiration. 1848 THACKERAY Vanity Fair xiii. As for the pink bonnets.. why boys will be boys. 1964 WODEHOUSE Frozen Assets iii. I tried to tell him that boys will be boys and you’re only young once. 2000 W. NORTHCUTT Darwin Awards iv. 108 Firecrackers are illegal in Indonesia. However, they can be purchased on the black market during celebrations such as Eid Al-Fitr.. And boys will be boys, the world over. "human nature

brae (slope, hill-side): see put a STOUT heart to a stey brae.
BRAG is a good dog, but Holdfast is better
Tenacity and quietness of manner are preferable to ostentation. Cf. 1580 A. MUNDAY Zelauto 146 Brag is a good Dogge, whyle he will holde out: but at last he may chaunce to meete with his matche; 1599 SHAKESPEARE Henry V II. iii. 52 And Holdfast is the only dog, my duck.

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  1709 O. DYKES English Proverbs 123 Brag is a good Dog, but Hold-fast is a Better. .. Nothing edifies less in an ingenuous Conversation, than Boasting and Rattle. 1752 S. JOHNSON Rambler 4 Feb. VIII. 92 When I envied the finery of any of my neighbours, [my mother] told me, that ‘brag was a good dog, but holdfast was a better’. 1889 Pictorial Proverbs for Little People 11 Brag’s a good dog, but Holdfast is better. 1937 R. W. WINSTON It’s Far Cry xxi. In golf, as in life.. the exceptional has no staying qualities. To quote a Southern [US] saying, ‘Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is better’. 1952 J. F. DOBIE Some Part of Myself vii. I remember my mother’s repeating once after he left an old proverb: ‘Brag’s a good dog, but Hold Fast is a better.’ “boasting; words and deeds