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Home  »  English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases  »  He that loves to He wants

W.C. Hazlitt, comp. English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases. 1907.

He that loves to He wants

He that loves glass without a G, / take away L, and that is he.

He that loves noise must buy a pig.
Quien quiere ruido, compro un cochino. Span.—R.

He that loves the tree, loves the branch. H.

He that makes himself an ass, must not take it ill if men ride him.

He that makes himself a sheep shall be eaten by the wolf. CL.
Chi pecora si fa il lupo la mangia. Ital. Qui se fait brebis le loup le mange. Fr. He that is gentle, and puts up with affronts and injuries, shall be sure to be loaden. Veterem ferendo injuriam invitas novam.—Terent. Post folia cadunt arbores.—Plaut. The Spaniards say, Hazéos miel, y comeros han moscas.—R.

He that makes his bed ill, lies there. H.

He that makes one basket may make a hundred.

He that makes the shoe can’t tan the leather.

He that maketh a fire of straw hath much smoke, and but little warmth.

  • He that maketh at Christmas a dog his larder,
  • and in March a sow his gardiner,
  • and in May a fool a keeper of wise counsel,
  • he shall never have good larder, fair garden, nor well-kept counsel.
  • MS. Lansd. 702, temp. Hen. V., in Reliq. Antiq., i. 223.

    He that marries a widow and three children marries four thieves.
    New Help to Discourse, 1721, p. 133. This appears to be Spanish.

    He that marries ere he be wise, will die ere he thrive.

  • He that may, and will not,
  • he then that would shall not:
  • he that would and cannot,
  • may repent, and sigh not.
  • Rhodes’ Boke of Nurture, ed. 1577, repr. Furnivall, p. 107. See Gower’s Confessio Amantis, ed. 1857, ii. 52:—
  • But what maiden, &c.
  • In The Baffled Knight, &c. (Percy’s Rel., 1812, ii. 280), we have:
  • A flower there is, that shineth bright,
  • Some call it mary-gold-a;
  • He that wold not, when he might,
  • He shall not, when he wold-a.
  • He that measureth not himself, is measured. H.

    He that measureth oil shall anoint his fingers.
    Qui mesure l’huile il s’enoint les mains. Fr.—R.

    He that mischief hatcheth, mischief catcheth. C.

    He that much hath, much behoveth.
    Dives and Pauper, 1493, cap. 4, p. 94.

    He that never climbed, never fell. HE.

    He that nothing questioneth nothing learneth.

    He that once deceives is ever suspected. H.

    He that once hits is ever bending. H.

    He that overfeeds his senses feasteth his enemies.

    He that owes nothing, if he makes not mouths at us, is courteous. H.

    He that passeth a judgment as he runs, overtaketh repentance.

    He that passeth a winter’s day, escapes an enemy.

    He that payeth beforehand shall have his work ill done.

    He that pays last never pays twice.

    He that pities another remembers himself. H.

    He that plants trees loves others besides himself.

    He that plays for more than he sees, forfeits his eyes to the king. C. AND CL.
    Another form is: He that wipeth his nose, and hath it not, forfeits his face to the king.

    He that plays his money ought not to value it. H.

    He that praiseth bestows a favour; he that detracts commits a robbery.

    He that praiseth publicly will slander privately.

    He that preacheth up war, when it might well be avoided, is the devil’s chaplain.

    He that prepares for ill, gives the blow a meeting, and breaks its stroke.

    He that pryeth into the clouds may be struck with a thunder-bolt.

    He that reckons without his host, must reckon again.

    He that regards not a penny will lavish a pound.

    He that repairs not a part builds all. H.

    He that requites a benefit pays a great debt.

    He that resolves to deal with none but honest men, must leave off dealing.

    He that returns a good for evil obtains the victory.

    He that rewards flattery, begs it.

    He that rides ere he be ready wants some o’ his gear.

  • He that rideth into the Hundred of Hoo,
  • besides pilfering seamen, shall find dirt enou’.
  • Skeat’s ed. of Pegge’s Kenticisms, 92, 3.

    He that riseth first is first dressed. H.

    He that riseth late must trot all day.
    Poor Richard Improved, 1758, by B. Franklin, apud Arber’s Garner, iv. 579.

    He that runs fast will not run long.

    He that runs fastest gets most ground.

    He that runs fastest gets the ring. SHAKESPEARE.

    He that runs in the dark may well stumble.

    He that scoffs at the crooked had need go very upright himself.

    He that seeks mots, gets mots.

    He that seeks to beguile is overtaken in his will.

    He that seeks trouble never misses. H.

    He that sends a fool expects one. H.

    He that sends a fool means to follow him. H.

    He that serves everybody is paid by nobody.

    He that shames let him be shent.

    He that showeth his wealth to a thief is the cause of his own pillage.

    He that shows a passion, tells his enemy where he may hit him.

    He that shows his purse, longs to be rid of it.

    He that shoots always right forfeits his arrow.

    He that shoots oft, at last shall hit the mark.
    More’s Utopia, 1516, transl. by R. Robinson, 1551, ed. Arber, p. 52.

    He that sings on Friday will weep on Sunday. H.

    He that sits to work in the market-place shall have many teachers.

    He that sitteth well thinketh ill. B. OF M. R.

    He that sleepeth, biteth nobody.
    Mery Tales and Quick Answers, No. 36.

    He that soon deemeth, soon shall repent.
    This is called “a common proverb” in a MS. treating of the subject (14th century), in a private library. But it seems to be little more than a translation from the Latin.

    He that sows in the highway tires his oxen and loseth his corn.

    He that sows thistles shall reap prickles.

    He that sows trusts in God. H.

    He that spares when he is young, may spend when he is old.

    He that speaks lavishly, shall hear as knavishly.
    Qui pergit ea quæ vult dicere, ca quæ non vult audiet. Terent.—R.

  • He that speaks me fair and loves me not,
  • I’ll speak him fair and trust him not.
  • He that speaks me fairer than his wont was to,
  • hath done me harm, or means for to do.
  • Puttenham (Arte of English Poesie, 1589, sign. 11 3 verso) renders in this certainly rather doggrel fashion the Italian distich:
  • Che me fa meglio che non suole
  • Tradito me ha o tradir me vuole;
  • which is more literally translated in the Booke of Meery Riddles, 1629, No. 12.

    He that speaks without care, shall remember with sorrow.

  • He that spends much, and getteth nought,
  • and oweth much and hath nought,
  • and looks in his purse, and finds nought,
  • he may be sorry, though he say nought.
  • MS. of the 15th cent. in Rel. Antiq., i. 316; Rhodes, Boke of Nurture, edit. 1577 (Babees Book, 1868, p. 107.)

    He that spends without regard shall want without pity.

    He that stays does the business. H.

    He that stays in the valley shall never get over the hill.

    He that steals can hide.

    He that strikes my dog, would strike me if he durst.

    He that strikes with his tongue must ward with his head. H.

    He that striketh with the sword shall be stricken with the scabbard. HE.

    He that studies his content, wants it.

    He that stumbles and falls not, mends his pace. H.

    He that sups upon salad goes not to bed fasting.

    He that swallowed a gudgeon.
    He that swore desperately, viz., to that which there is a great presumption is false: swalloweth a false oath.—R.

    He that sweareth falsely, denieth God.

  • He that sweareth till no man trust him,
  • he that lieth till no man believe him,
  • he that borroweth till no man will lend him,
  • let him go where no man knoweth him.
  • Rhodes, Boke of Nurture, 1577, ed. Furnivall, p. 108.

    He that takes not up a pin slights his wife. H.

    He that takes pet at a feast loses it all.

    He that takes the devil into his boat must carry him over the sound.

    He that takes too great a leap falls into the ditch.

    He that talks much of his happiness summons grief. H.

    He that talks to himself talks to a fool.

    He that tells a lie buffeteth himself.

    He that tells a secret is another’s servant. H.

    He that tells his wife news is but lately married.

    He that thatches his house with dung shall have more teachers than reachers.

    He that thinks his business below him will always be above his business.

    He that thinks too much of his virtues, bids others think of his vices.

    He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled.
    Lyly’s Euphues, 1579. repr. 1868, p. 111. “Who that toucheth Pitch shall be filed with it.”—Wilson’s Art of Rhetorique, 1553, edit. 1584, sign. A v verso.

    He that travels far knows much.

    He that trusts to borrowed ploughs will have his land lie fallow.

    He that useth to lie is not always believed when he says true. CL.

    He that [or who] waits for dead men’s shoes shall go long bare-foot. HE.
    A tongue corde tire qui d’autrui mort desire. Fr. Porter’s Two Angrie Women of Abington, 1599, edit. Dyce, p. 42.

    He that waits upon another’s trencher makes many a late dinner.

    He that walketh much i’ th’ sun will be tann’d at last. CL.

    He that walketh with the virtuous is one of them.

    He that wants hope is the poorest man alive.

    He that wants money is accounted among those that want wit.

    He that was born under a three-halfpenny planet shall never be worth twopence.

    He that washeth an ass’s head shall lose both his lye and his labour. CL.

    He that wears black, / must hang a brush at his back.

    He that weighs the wind must have a steady hand.

    He that will be his own master will have a fool for his scholar.
    Qui so sibi magistratum constituit, stulto se discipulum subdit.—St. Bernard, Epist. 83, quoted in N. and Q., 3rd S., xi. 192.

    He that will conquer must fight.

    He that will deceive the fox must rise betimes. H.
    Quien el diablo lia de enganar, de manana so ha de levantar. Span.

    He that will eat the kernel must crack the nut.
    Qui é nuce nuclum esse vult, nucem frangit.—Plaut. Cure. I. i. 55. Il faut casser la noix pour manger le noyau. Fr.—R.

    He that will enter Paradise must have a good key. H.

    He that will England win, / must with Scotland first begin.
    Hall’s Chronicle, 1548; Holinshed’s Chronicle, 1577; Famous Victories of Henry V., 1598, apud Hazlitt’s Shakespear’s Library, v. 350, whore it is quoted as “the old saying.” The perturbed and weak state of Scotland at the time of the Protector Somerset’s expedition into that then independent kingdom, probably occasioned this proverbial expression. It was afterward altered to suit circumstances existing in Ireland, not similar in their character, of course, but supposed to be so in their bearing on English affairs.

    He that will have a cake out of the wheat, must needs tarry the grinding. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, 1609.

    He that will have a hare to breakfast must hunt over-night. C.

    He that will have all loseth all. B. OF M. R.

    He that will in court dwell, / must needs curry favell.
    i.e., must flatter. See Douce’s Illustr. of Shakespeare, 1807, i. 475.

  • He that will in East Cheap eat a goose so fat,
  • with harp, pipe, and song,
  • he must sleep in Newgate on a mat,
  • be the night never so long.
  • From an early naval song printed in Reliquiæ Antiquæ. It is equal to Skelton’s “He dyned with delyte, with Poverte he must sup” (Works, ed. Dyce, i. 290). Eastcheap seems to have been celebrated as a place for dining; see the interlude of the World and the Child, 1522 (Dodsley’s O. P., by Hazlitt, i. 265), and compare Lydgate’s ballad of London Lickpenny at the end of “A Chronicle of London,” 1827, p. 263:—
  • “Then I hied me into Est Chepe:
  • One cries ribbs of befe, and many a pie
  • Pewtar potts they clatteryd on a heape,
  • Ther was harpe, pipe, and sawtry.”
  • He that will learn to pray, let him go to sea. H.

    He that will make a door of gold must knock in a nail every day.

    He that will meddle with all things must go shoo the goslings.
    Skelton asks,

  • “What hath lay men to do.
  • The gray gose for to sho?”
  • C’e da faro per tutto, dicera colui che farrava l’occa. Ital.—R.

    He that will not be counselled cannot be helped.

    He that will not be ruled by his own dame, shall be ruled by his stepdame. HE.

    He that will not be saved needs no sermon.

    He that will not bear the itch must endure the smart.

    He that will not endure labour in this world had better not be born. B. OF M. R.

    He that will not go over the stile must be thrust through the gate.

  • He that will not live long,
  • let him dwell at Muston, Tenham, or Tong.
  • Skeat’s ed. of Pegge’s Kenticisms, 93.

    He that will not sail till all dangers are over, must never put to sea.

    He that will not sail till he have a full fair wind will lose many a voyage.

    He that will not stoop for a pin will never be worth a pound. PEPYS.
    The Diarist under January 2, 1667–8, makes Sir W. Coventry use it to Charles II.

    He that will not suffer evil must never think of a preferment. HE.

  • He that will not when he may,
  • when he would, he shall have nay.
  • “If ye wil not now, when ye would ye shal have nay.”
  • Preston’s Cambyses (1570), apud Hawkins, i. 269.
  • He that will not work must want. CL.

    He that will steal a pin, / will steal a better thing.

    He that will steal an egg will steal an ox. CL.

    He that will swear will lie.
    Taylor’s Wit and Mirth, 1629.

    He that will take the bird must not scare it. H.

    He that will throw a stone at every dog that barketh, hath need of a great satchel.
    Gascoigne’s Posies, 1575 (Works, by Hazlitt, i. 5).

  • He that will wed a widow must come day and night;
  • he that will win a maid must seldom come in her sight. CL.
  • He that will win a Lancashire lass,
  • at any time or tide,
  • Must bait his hook with a good egg-pie,
  • and an apple with a red side.
  • Wit and Drollery, 1682, p. 94.

  • He that winketh with one eye, and looketh with the other,
  • I would not trust him, if he were my brother. C.
  • He that woos a maid must feign, lie, and flatter,
  • but he that woos a widow must down with his breeches and at her.
  • This proverb being somewhat immodest, I should have not inserted it, but that I met with it in a little book entitled, “The Quaker’s Spiritual Court Proclaimed,” written by Nathaniel Smith, Student in Physic; wherein the author mentions it as counsel given him by one Hilkiah Bedford, an eminent Quaker in London, who would have had him to have married a rich widow, in whose house, in case he could get her, this Nathaniel Smith had promised Hilkiah a chamber gratis. The whole narrative is very well worth the reading.—R. “Do, but dally not: that’s the widow’s phrase.”—Barrey’s Ram Alley, 1611 (Dodsley, by Hazlitt, x. 306).
  • No crafty widows shall approach my bed;
  • These are too wise for bachelors to wed:
  • As subtle clerks by many schools are made,
  • Twice-married dames are mistresses i’ the trade;
  • But young and tender virgins, rul’d with ease,
  • We form like wax, and mould them as we please.
  • Pope’s January and May.
  • He that worketh wickedness by another is wicked himself.
    On the principle of the legal aphorism, Qui facit per alium, facit per se.

    He that works journey-work with the devil shall never want work.

    He [or who] that worst may, shall hold the candle. HE.
    Scogin’s Jests, ed. 1626 (Old Engl. Jest-Books, ii.); Camden’s Remaines, 1614, p. 307. In A C. Mery Talys (1525), No. 65, “to eat the candle” is used as a phrase indicative of defeat and humiliation.

  • He that would an old wife wed,
  • must eat an apple before he goes to bed.
  • He that would be a head let him be a bridge.

    He that would be well need not go from his own house. H.

    He that would be well old must be old betimes. H.

    He that would be well served must know when to change his servants.

    He that would do no ill, / must do all good, or sit still.

    He that would eat a buttered faggot, let him go to Northampton.
    I have heard that King James should speak this of Newmarket; but I am sure it may better be applied to this town, the dearest in England for fuel, where no coals can come by water, and little wood doth grow on land.—R.

    He that would eat a good dinner, let him eat a good breakfast.

    He that would England win, / must with Ireland first begin.
    Fynes Moryson’s Itinerary, 1617. This proverb probably had its rise in the popular discontent felt in Ireland at the system of plantation, which was carried into force there during the reign of James I. See Conditions to be Observed by the Adventurers, &c., 1609. But the saying itself (with a difference) is nearly a century older. Vide supra.

    He that would hang his dog gives out first that he is mad.
    Quien â su pérro quiere matar, rabia le ha de levantar. Span. He that is about to do anything disingenuous, unworthy, or of evil fame, first bethinks himself of some plausible pretence.—R. This seems, in fact, to be a various reading of the old “Quos deus vult perdere, prius dementat.”

    He that would have a bad morning may walk out in a fog after a frost.

    He that would have good luck in horses, must kiss the parson’s wife.
    This seems to have a satirical import, and merely to be a laugh at the expense of those who listen to absurd suggestions for attaining success in an object.

  • He that would have his fold full,
  • must keep an old tup and a young bull. Lanc.
  • Tup = sheep.

    He that would have the fruit must climb the tree.

    He that would know what shall be, must consider what hath been.

    He that would live for aye, / must eat sage in May.
    That sage was by our ancestors esteemed a very wholesome herb, and much conducing to longevity, appears by that verse in the Schola Salernitana:

  • Cur moriatur homo cui salvia crescit in horto?—R.
  • He that would live in peace and rest
  • must hear, and see, and say the least.
  • Oy, voy, et te tais, si tu veux vivre en paix. Fr. Ode, vede, tace, se vuoi viver in pace. Ital. Quanto sabes no dirás, quanto vées, no juzgaras, si quieres vivir en paz. Span.—R. Compare Audi, vide, &c.

    He that would rightly understand a man, must read his whole story.

  • He that would take a Lancashire man at any time or tide,
  • must bait his hook with a good egg pie, or an apple with a red side.
  • This is given with a slight variation in Wit and Drollery, 1661, p. 250. “He that will fish for,” &c. It occurs in what is called “The Lancasire Song,” apparently a mere string of whimsical scraps, but in W. and D., 1686, p. 94, a Lancashire lass is substituted. Fynes Moryson, in his Itinerary, 1617, refers to the saying as current in his time—about 1598, and seems to speak of Lancashire folk as “egg-pies.”

  • He that would the daughter win,
  • must with the mother first begin.
  • He that would thrive by law must see his enemy’s counsel as well as his own.

  • He that will thrive,
  • must rise at five:
  • he that hath thriven,
  • may lie till seven,
  • (So far only in Clarke’s Parœm., 1639, p. 93.)
  • and he that will never thrive, / may lie till eleven.
  • Countryman’s New Commonwealth, 1647. In Halliwell’s N. R. of E., 6th edit., p. 72, the verses conclude with these two lines instead of those which I have given:
  • And he that by the plough would thrive,
  • Himself must either hold or drive.
  • He that’s afraid of leaves must not come in a wood.

    He that’s afraid of the wagging of feathers, must keep from among wild fowl. COTGRAVE.

    He that’s afraid of wounds must not come nigh a battle.

    He that’s afraid to do good would do ill if he durst.

    He that’s carried down the stream needs not row.

    He that’s down, down with him, cries the world.

    He that’s ill to himself will be good to nobody.

    He that’s sick of a fever lurden, must be cured by the hazel gelding.
    The fever lurden is idleness: the hazel gelding, the rod or stick, with which it shall be chastised.

    He thinks every bush a boggard.
    i.e., a boggart, or Barguest, the dog-fiend, whose existence was a current superstition in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and also in North Britain. See Lancashire Folk-lore, 1867, p. 91, and my Faiths and Folklore, 1905, p. 27.

    He thinks his penny good silver.
    Perhaps this saying arose, when the old silver coin had gone out of use.

    He thinks not well that thinks not again. H.

    He thought to have turned iron into gold, and he turned gold into iron.

    He threatens many that is injurious to one.

    He toils like a dog in a wheel, who roasts meat for other people’s eating.
    This refers to the time when the turnspit was employed to turn the jack.

    He took him napping, &c.
    Compare Napping, &c.

    He touched it as warily as a cat doth a coal of fire.

    He travelled with Mandeville. F.
    We now say Munchausen.

    He useth the rake more than the fork.

    He waiteth for moonshine in the water. HE.

    He wants nothing now, but the itch, to scratch.