Robert Christy, comp. Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages. 1887.
Mouse
A mouse in time may shear a cable asunder.
A mouse must not think to cast a shadow like an elephant.
A mouse will put the finishing stroke to a castle wall.
By diligence and patience the mouse ate into the cable.Franklin.
If you are a mouse don’t follow frogs.Italian.
It’s a bold mouse that makes her nest in the cat’s ear.Danish.
It is a mean mouse that has but ae hole.
It is a poor mouse that sits on the meal sack and does not gnaw.German.
It were better to hear the lark sing than the mouse cheep.
Mice care not to play with kittens.
No larder but hath its mice.
She is a sairy mouse that has but ae hole.
That mouse will have a tail; i.e., the thing will have a long train of consequences.Dutch.
The mountain is in labor and brings forth a mouse.Italian, Latin.
The mouse does not leave the cat’s house with a belly full.Italian, Spanish.
The mouse is knowing but the cat more knowing.Danish.
The mouse may find a hole in a room ever so full of cats.Danish.
The mouse that has but one hole is soon caught.French, Spanish, Dutch.
The mouse that trusts to one poor hole,
Can never be a mouse of any soul.Pope.
’Tis not the mouse but the hole that does the injury.German.
Weel kens the mouse when the cat’s out o’ the house.
When a mouse has fallen into the meal sack he thinks he’s the miller himself.Dutch.
Who shall hang the bell about the cat’s neck? (The mice having in council decided that this was necessary to their safety were confronted with this question.)