The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (97 page)
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The COMPANY makes the feast
1653Compleat Angler
iii.
Take this for a rule, you may pick out such times and such companies, that you may make yourselves merrier,.. for 'tis the company and not the charge [expense] that makes the feast.
1911
Good Cheer
xxxii.
Epicurus maintained that you should rather have regard to the company with whom you eat .. than to what you eat … This has been crystallised into the terse English proverb, ‘The company makes the feast.’
1981
‘’
Suicide most Foul
vi.
It is the company which makes the occasion, not the surroundings.
friends;
hospitality
COMPARISONS are odious
Cf. early 14th-cent. Fr.
comparaisons sont haÿneuses
, comparisons are hateful.
c
1440
Minor Poems
(EETS) 561
Odious of old been all comparisouns.
1456
Gilbert of Hay's Prose MS
(STS) 282
I will nocht here mak questioun .. quhy [why] that alwayis comparisoun is odious.
c
1573
Letter-Book
(1884) 7
But thai wil sai, Comparisons ar odius: in deed, as it fals out, thai ar too odious.
1724
Drapier's Letters
X. 82
A Judge .. checked the Prisoner .. taxing him with ‘reflecting on the court by such a Comparison, because Comparisons were odious.’
1872
Letter
15 Sept. (1920) I. 32
Nuremburg is excellent—and comparisons are odious; but I would give a thousand N[uremburg]'s for one ray of Verona.
1939
Printer's Error
ii.
‘I will study the psychology of pigs instead of that of .. refugees.’ ‘Comparisons are odious,’ observed Carey.
1979
Guardian
25 June 4
If there is one message .. it is that comparisons are odious. Incomes and prices have to be related to local conditions.
similarity and dissimilarity
comparaisons sont haÿneuses
, comparisons are hateful.
c1440
Minor Poems
(EETS) 561
Odious of old been all comparisouns.
1456
Gilbert of Hay's Prose MS
(STS) 282
I will nocht here mak questioun .. quhy [why] that alwayis comparisoun is odious.
c
1573
Letter-Book
(1884) 7
But thai wil sai, Comparisons ar odius: in deed, as it fals out, thai ar too odious.
1724
Drapier's Letters
X. 82
A Judge .. checked the Prisoner .. taxing him with ‘reflecting on the court by such a Comparison, because Comparisons were odious.’
1872
Letter
15 Sept. (1920) I. 32
Nuremburg is excellent—and comparisons are odious; but I would give a thousand N[uremburg]'s for one ray of Verona.
1939
Printer's Error
ii.
‘I will study the psychology of pigs instead of that of .. refugees.’ ‘Comparisons are odious,’ observed Carey.
1979
Guardian
25 June 4
If there is one message .. it is that comparisons are odious. Incomes and prices have to be related to local conditions.
similarity and dissimilarityHe that COMPLIES against his will is of his own opinion still
1678Hudibras
III. iii.
He that complies against his Will, Is of his own Opinion still; Which he may adhere to, yet disown, For Reasons to himself best known.
1965
Mandelbaum Gate
V.
No one should submit their mind to another mind: He that complies against his will Is of his own opinion still—that's
my
motto. I won't be brainwashed.
1985
Penance for Jerry Kennedy
xiii.
But Ed Maguire did what he did against his own convictions. And what they say is true .. ‘A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.’
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