You can earn good money if you don’t mind dirtying your hands.

Another version of this proverb is Muck and money go together; ‘bras ‘ is a
slang word for money. We can appreciate the point of these sayings when we
find ourselves in a great industrial area, with its factories and foundries,
its smoky atmosphere, its coal mines, its ironstone mines, its clay mines, its
slag-heaps.

In one of its sense ‘muck’ is the material removed in the process of mining.
It has to be separated from the ores, and its presence in great pyramids shows
that much valuable stuff has been extracted as well.

Both sayings can apply also to a craftsman – a potter, perhaps – who has not
the time to clear up the mess behind him because he is too busy turning out
marketable products.

This refers to rumours, the argument being that all rumours are based on fact;
that although some may doubt the accuracy of a report that is passing from
mouth to mouth, there must be some truth in it, however little. The proverb
means the same as There is no smoke without fire.

We have no alternative but to bow to the inevitable. It is a philosophical
acceptance of things as they are.

##### See also:

* Do not kick against the pricks
* What can’t be cured must be endured
* You must grin and bear it

A sober man keeps a guard on his tongue, holding back anything he wishes to
hide. Strong drinks unseals his lips and he tells everything. A similar
proverb is In wine there is truth, the Latin version of which is In vino
veritas.

We are not worried by things that go on without our knowledge. For example, if
the chef in a restaurant makes a practice of spitting in the frying-pan to
make sure the temperature is right for the Crepes Suzette, the diners are not
distressed, since they do not see it happen.

##### See also:

* Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise

What will the neighbours say? As is mentioned under We are all slaves of
opinion, our actions are influenced by what other people may say or think
about them.

In a play called _Speed The Plough_ by Thomas Morton and first produced in
1798, Mrs. Grundy is the symbol of conventional propriety. She does not appear
in the play, but her neighbour, Dame Ashfield, is constantly afraid of
incurring her disapproval.

You will be punished or rewarded according to whether you have lad a virtuous
or a sinful life. This proverb means the same as As you sow, so shall you
reap.

Unless we listen to each other, we shall learn nothing

The rhymed version of this is:

> When children stand still,
> They have done some ill.

A mother once said her daughter: ‘Tommy’s very quiet. Go and find out what
he’s doing, dear, and tell him he mustn’t’.

This means the same as ‘Lend your money and lose your friend‘. See also
Neither a borrower nor a lender be.

This is an old Cheshire proverb, ‘nowt’ meaning ‘nothing’. It is better to
refrain from action than to do something you are not sure about. There is much
to be said for what Sir James Mackintosh once described as ‘a wise and
masterly inactivity. ‘

We tend to value things by the amount we pay for them, which is not always
their true worth. The same article may cost twice as much in the fashionable
store as it does in the little shop round the corner, yet we try to keep up
with the Joneses by buying it at the store.

The same applies to other thing. For example, good health costs nothing, yet
we do not value it until we have ceased to enjoy it.