The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (306 page)

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Authors: John Andrew Simpson,

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
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What you don't KNOW can't hurt you
1576
Petit Palace
168
Why should I seeke to take him in it? .. So long as I know it not, it hurteth mee not.
1908
Easiest Way
III. 66
What a fellow doesn't know doesn't hurt him, and he'll love you just the same.
1979
This Fatal Writ
54
‘No, this is interesting … I didn't know—’ ‘What you don't know can't hurt you,’ said Maitland.
1984
Man in Gray Flannel Shroud
xiii.
If she weren't already aware of her dead lover's perfidy, then it was a genuine case of what you don't know can't hurt you.
1992
Rather English Marriage
(1993) vi. 115
Everyone's entitled to their privacy and what you don't know can't hurt you.
ignorance
KNOW thyself
Cf. Gr.
ò
u
ó
(
o
u
ó
), the motto inscribed on the 6th-cent. BC temple of Apollo at Delphi and quoted by several ancient writers (some attributing it to Solon): see esp. Pausanias x. 24 and Juvenal Satires xi; L.
nosce teipsum
.

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