Moderation. Excess
Enough is enough of bread and cheese.
Enough is as good as a feast.
“A bird can roost but on one branch; a mouse can drink no more than its fill from a river” (Chinese). “He is rich enough who does not want” (Italian).317 But the difficulty is to determine to a nicety the point at which there is neither want nor surplus. Practically there is no such point, however it may exist in theory; for
There’s never enough where nought is left.
Of enough men leave.
Where all is eaten up it is pretty certain that the commons were but short. “There is not enough if there is not too much” (French).318 Beaumarchais makes Figaro, in speaking of love, to utter the charming hyperbole which has passed into a proverb, “Too much is not enough.”319 Even without being in love, everybody must agree with Voltaire in considering
“Le superflu, chose très nécessaire.”
Better leave than lack.
All covet, all lose.
Covetousness brings nothing home.
“It bursts the bag” (Italian).320 Like the dog in the fable, it grasps at the shadow, and lets fall the substance. “He that embraces too much holds nothing fast” (Italian, French).321 A statue was erected to Buffon in his lifetime, with the inscription, Naturam amplectitur omnem (“He embraces all nature”). Somebody remarked upon this, “He that embraces too much,” &c. Buffon heard of the sarcasm, and had the inscription obliterated.
It is hard for a greedy eye to hae a leal heart.—Scotch.
Covetousness is scarcely consistent with honesty.
Much would have more.
A greedy eye never had a fu’ weam [belly].—Scotch.
“The dust alone can fill the eye of man” (Arab); i.e., the dust of the grave can alone extinguish the lust of the eye and the cupidity of man. Among the Arabs, the phrase, “His eye is full,” signifies he possesses every object of his desire. The Germans say, “Greed and the eye can no man fill.”322 The Scotch say of a covetous person,—
He’ll get enough ae day when his mouth’s fu’ o’ mools [mould].
The greedy man and the gileynoar [cheat] are soon agreed.—Scotch.
“The sharper soon cheats the covetous man” (Spanish).323
The grace of God is gear enough.
—Scotch.
This is the northern form of the proverb which Launcelot Gobbo speaks of as being well parted between Bassanio and Shylock. “You [Bassanio] have the grace of God, and he [Shylock] has enough.”
Too much is stark nought.—Welsh.
Too much of one thing is good for nothing.
“One may be surfeited with eating tarts” (French).324 “Nothing too much!” (Latin.)325
Better a wee fire to warm us than a meikle fire to burn us.—Scotch.
It is better to be content with a moderate fortune than attempt to increase it at the risk of being ruined. “Give me the ass that carries me, rather than the horse that throws me” (Portuguese).326
Little sticks kindle a fire, but great ones put it out.
Fair and softly goes far in a day.
Hooly and fairly men ride far journeys.—Scotch.
“Who goes softly goes safely, and who goes safely goes far” (Italian).327 “Take-it-easy and Live-long are brothers” (German).328
Fools’ haste is no speed.
The more haste the worse speed.
This seems to be derived from the Latin adage, Festinatio tarda est (“Haste is slow”). It defeats its own purpose by the blunders and imperfect work it occasions. A favourite saying of the Emperors Augustus and Titus was, Festina lente (“Hasten leisurely”), which Erasmus calls the king of adages. The Germans have happily translated it,329 and it is well paraphrased in that saying of Sir Amyas Paulet, “Tarry a little, that we may make an end the sooner.” A thing is done “Fast enough if well enough” (Latin).330
Naething in haste but gripping o’ fleas.—Scotch.
Nothing should be done in haste except catching fleas.
Haste trips up its own heels.
“He that goes too hastily along often stumbles on a fair road” (French).331 “Reason lies between the bridle and the spur” (Italian).332
Draw not your bow till your arrow is fixed.
He that rides ere he be ready wants some o’ his graith.—Scotch.
He leaves some of his accoutrements behind him. Perhaps one reason why “It is good to have a hatch before your door” is, that it may act as a check upon such unprofitable haste. Sydney Smith adopted a similar expedient, which he called a screaming gate. “We all arrived once,” he said, “at a friend’s house just before dinner, hot, tired, and dusty—a large party assembled—and found all the keys of our trunks had been left behind. Since then I have established a screaming gate. We never set out on our journey now without stopping at a gate about ten minutes’ distance from the house, to consider what we have left behind. The result has been excellent.”
Two hungry meals make the third a glutton.
Excess in one direction induces excess in the opposite direction.
Soft fire makes sweet malt.
More flies are caught with a drop of honey than with a tun of vinegar.
“Gentleness does more than violence” (French).333 “The gentle calf sucks all the cows” (Portuguese).334
Ower hot, ower cauld.—Scotch.
“It may be a fire—on the morrow it will be ashes” (Arab). Violent passions are apt to subside quickly. “Soon fire, soon ashes” (Dutch).
A man may love his house weel, and no ride on the riggin [roof] o’t.—Scotch.
No one will believe that he loves it the more for any such extravagant demonstration.
Many irons in the fire, some will cool.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Ower mony greeves [overseers] hinder the wark.—Scotch.
“Too many tirewomen make the bride ill dressed” (Spanish).335 “If the sailors become too numerous the ship sinks” (Arab).
A bow o’erbent will weaken.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
“This nation, the northern part of it especially, is given to believe in the sovereign efficacy of dulness. To be sure, dulness and solid vice are apt to go hand in hand. But then, according to our notions, dulness is in itself so good a thing—almost a religion. Now, if ever a people required to be amused, it is we sad-hearted Anglo-Saxons. Heavy eaters, hard thinkers, often given up to a peculiar melancholy of our own, with a climate that for months together would frown away mirth if it could—many of us with very gloomy thoughts about our hereafter. If ever there were a people who should avoid increasing their dulness by all work and no play, we are that people. ‘They took their pleasure sadly,’ says Froissart, ‘after their fashion.’ We need not ask of what nation Froissart was speaking.”—(Friends in Council.)
The mill that is always grinding grinds coarse and fine together.—Irish.
“The pot that boils too much loses flavour” (Portuguese).336
Play’s gude while it is play.—Scotch.
Beware of pushing it to that point at which it ceases to be play. “Leave off the play (or jest) when it is merriest” (Spanish).337 Never let it degenerate into horse play. “Manual play is clowns’ play” (French).338
A man may make his own dog bite him.
It is not wise to overstrain authority, or to drive even the weakest or most submissive to desperation.
A baited cat may grow as fierce as a lion.
Put a coward on his mettle and he’ll fight the devil.
Make a bridge of gold for the flying enemy.
Extremes meet.
A proverb of universal application in the physical as well as the moral world. Every one knows the saying of Napoleon, “From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.”
Too far east is west.
No feast to a miser’s.
Footnotes
317 Assai è rico a chi non manca.
318 Assez n’y a, si trop n’y a.
319 Trop n’est pas assez.
320 La codicia rompe il saco.
321 Chi troppo abbraccia, nulla stringe. Qui trop embrasse, mal étreint.
322 Den Geiz und die Augen kann niemand füllen.
323 El tramposo presto engaña al codicioso.
324 On se saoule bien de manger tartes.
325 Ne quid nimis.
326 Mais quero asno que me leve que cavallo que me derrube.
327 Chi va piano, va sano, e chi va sano, va lontano.
328 Gehgemach und Lebelang sind Bruder.
329 Eile mit Weile.
330 Sat cito si sat bene.
331 Qui trop se hâte en cheminant, en beau chemin se fourvoye souvent.
332 Trà la briglia e lo speron consiste la raggion.
333 Plus fait douceur que violence.
334 Bezerrinha mansa todas as vaccas mamma.
335 Muchos componedores descomponen la novia.
336 Panella que muito ferve, o sabor perde.
337 A la burla, dejarla quando mas agrada.
338 Jeu de mains, jeu de vilains.