We soon believe what we want to believe.

##### See also:

* The wish is father to the thought

To ‘go to the wall’ is to be thrust aside. In the battle for survival it is
the weak who suffer most.

This is a rhetorical question needing no reply. It means something on the
lines of: ‘Why are you surprised by his rude behaviour? It’s all you can
expect from such a pig of a man.’

##### See also:

* You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear

Don’t ask for trouble. It’s safer to leave things as they are.

##### See also:

* Let sleeping dogs lie

Be careful what you say and where you say it. There my be someone lurking on
the other side of the wall, or, to bring the proverb up to date, there my be a
hidden microphone _in_ the wall.

Dire need forces people to work, to make enough money to live.

##### See also:

* Necessity is the mother of invention

This, in its abbreviated form, is one of those proverbs that have remained
more common in the original than in English translation. It is the Latin for A
WORD IS ENOUGH TO THE WISE.

##### See also:

* A word is enough to the wise

Wise people are resourceful and do not feel the lack of company when alone,
because they can find plenty to do plenty to think about.

Unity is strength. As long as we stick together we shall be safe. If we begin
to quarrel among ourselves, our opponents will strike us down one by one.

##### See also:

* A house divided against itself cannot stand
* There is safety in number

It doesn’t do to be too curious or inquisitive. The proverb is a quotation
from _The Lucky Chance_ , a play by Aprah Behn. The reference is, of course,
to the story of Adam and Eve, who were expelled from the garden of Eden
because they had tasted the forbidden fruit (see Forbidden fruit is sweetest).

##### See also:

* Eavesdroppers never hear any good of themselves
* The fish will soon be caught that nibbles at every bait
* He who peeps through a hole may see what will vex him.

People are judged by what they do.

The sources are Matthew, xii, 33 and Luke, vi, 44. Here is the second of these
as given in the New English Bible:

> There is no such thing as a good tree producing worthless fruit, nor yet a
worthless tree producing good fruit. For each _tree is known by its own fruit_
; you do not gather figs from thistles, and you do not pick grapes from
brambles. A good man produces good from the store of good within himself; and
an evil man from evil within produces evil.

Truth cannot be concealed indefinitely. A similar proverb is Murder will out.
As Shakespeare make a character say in _The Merchant of Venice_ : ‘Truth will
come to light; murder cannot be hid long.’