Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.

Bear

An old bear is slow in learning to dance.German.

Catch the bear before you sell his skin.

Don’t play with the bear if you don’t want to be bit.Italian.

He must have iron nails that scratches with a bear.

He that hath eaten a bear pie will always smell of the garden.

If it were a bear it would bite you. (Applied to a person hunting for a thing mislaid, by a person observing him near to it.)

One cannot teach a bear to dance in a day.German.

One must catch the bear before he draws a ring through his nose.German.

One must not play on the nose of the sleeping bear.German.

One must not reach his hand to the hungry bear.German.

Savage bears agree with one another.Juvenal.

The bear wants a tail and cannot be lion.

The she bear thinks her cubs pretty.Italian.