A dictionary of Proverbs (Oxford Paperback Reference)

brew see also as you BAKE, so shall you brew.
You cannot make BRICKS without straw
Nothing can be made or performed without the necessary materials. Frequently used as a metaphorical phrase, to make bricks without straw. A (misapplied) allusion to EXODUS V. 7 (AV) Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. Cf. 1624 BURTON Anatomy of Melancholy (ed. 2) I. ii. (Hard taske-masters as they [patrons] are) they take away their straw, & compell them to make their number of bricke.

• 
  1658 T. HYDE Letter in Verney Memoirs (1904) II. xxxviii. I have made the enclosed. It is an hard task to make bricks without straw, but I have raked together some rubbish. 1737 in Publications of Prince Society (1911) III. 170 Let Men be never so willing and industrious, they can’t make Brick without Straw. 1909 A. BENNETT Literary Taste iv. You can only acquire really useful general ideas by first acquiring particular ideas...You cannot make bricks without straw. 1995 A. G. TAYLOR Simeon’s Bride xxxi. 208 ‘What would you have us do, sir?’ Jack asked. ‘We can’t make bricks without straw.’ ■possibility and impossibility; work
  

Happy is the BRIDE that the sun shines on
An equivalent superstition is blessed are the DEAD that the rain rains on.

• 
  1648 HERRICK Hesperides 129 Blest is the Bride, on whom the Sun doth shine. And thousands gladly wish You multiply, as doth a fish. 1787 F. GROSE Provincial Glossary
  

(Superstitions) 61 It is reckoned a good omen, or a sign of future happiness, if the sun shines on a couple coming out of the church after having been married. .. Happy is the bride that the sun shines on. 1926 ‘P. WENTWORTH’ Black Cabinet xxxvi. ‘Happy’s the bride that the sun shines on,’ is how the proverb goes. But where there’s real true love..there’s always sunshine in a manner of speaking. 1984 C. A. O’MARIE Novena for Murder 181 And the weather is cooperating! ‘Blessed the bride that the sun shines on!’ ■ blessings; weddings