Opportunity
What May Be Done at Any Time Will Be Done at No Time
“By the street of By-and-by one arrives at the house of Never” (Spanish).511
Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.
“One to-day is worth ten to-morrows” (German).512 “To-day must borrow nothing of to-morrow” (German).513 “When God says to-day, the devil says to-morrow” (German).514 Talleyrand used to reverse these maxims: by never doing to-day what he could put off till to-morrow he avoided committing himself prematurely.
Strike while the iron is hot.
This proverb is cosmopolitan; but
Make hay while the sun shines
is peculiar to England, and, as Trench remarks, could have had its birth only under such variable skies as ours.
Take the ball at the hop.
Take time while time is, for time will away.
Time and tide wait for no man.
“God keep you from ‘It is too late’” (Spanish).515 “A little too late, much too late” (Dutch).516 “Stay but a while, you lose a mile” (Dutch).517
After a delay comes a let.
Delays are dangerous.
Especially in affairs of love and marriage. Therefore, “When thy daughter’s chance comes, wait not her father’s coming from the market” (Spanish).518 Close with the offer on the spot. “When the fool has made up his mind the market has gone by” (Spanish).519
He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.
“Some refuse roast meat, and afterwards long for the smoke of it” (Italian).520
The nearer the church, the farther from God.
“Next to the minster, last to mass” (French).521 “The nearer to Rome, the worse Christian” (Dutch).522 The buyer of many books will probably read few of them, and somebody has said that he never was afraid of engaging in a controversy with the owner of a large library. Many a Londoner would never see half its lions but for the necessity of showing them to country cousins.
The shoemaker’s wife goes worst shod.
Where the best wine is made the worst is commonly drunk. Better fish is to be had in Billingsgate than on the seacoast.
Footnotes
511 Por la calle de despues se va á la casa de nunca.
512 Ein Heute ist besser als zehn Morgen.
513 Heute muss dem Morgen nichts borgen.
514 Wenn Gott sagt: Heute, sagt der Teufel: Morgen.
515 Guarde te Dios de hecho es.
516 Een wenig te laat, veel te laat.
517 Sta maar een wijl, gij verliest een mijl.
518 Quando á tu hija le viniere su hado, no aguardes que vienga su padre del mercado.
519 Quando el necio es acordado, el mercado es ya pasado.
520 Tal lascia l’arrosto, chi poi ne brama il fumo. Qui refuse, muse.
521 Près du monstier, à messe le dernier.
522 Hoe digter bij Rom, hoe slechter Christ.