The rule in carving holds good as to criticism;
never cut with a knife what you can cut with a spoon.CHARLES BUXTON
Never hunt rabbit with dead dog.CHARLIE CHAN, offering ancient Chinese wisdom
In nearly fifty films, a long-running radio program, and a 1950s television series, Charlie Chan was a Chinese-born detective working for the Honolulu Police Department. Beginning with the 1925 film The House Without a Key, the cinematic role of Chan was played by six different actors. Chan’s crime-solving efforts were often frustrated by the ineptness of his two sons, referred to as “Number One” and “Number Two.” Some of Chan’s attempts to spout ancient Chinese wisdom were accurate (“Long journey always start with one short step”), but others were clearly the creation of the screenwriters (“Mind like parachute—only function when open”). Other Chan neverisms included:
Never believe nightmare, no matter how real it may seem.
Ancient proverb say: “Never bait trap with wolf to catch wolf.”
Learn from hen. Never boast about egg until after hen’s birthday.
Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with.
Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket;
and do not pull it out, and strike it, merely to show you have one.LORD CHESTERFIELD (Philip Dormer Stanhope),
in a 1748 letter to his son
Never Attack a Fortress Before You Drain the MoatJOHN M. COMER, title of 1983 guidebook for parents
about evaluating textbooks and instructional materials
Never try to milk a steer.JAY P. DECIMA, in his 2004 book Start Small,
Profit Big in Real Estate
DeCima was making the point that we should thoroughly investigate people who offer get-rich-quick schemes. He added: “You can only get milk from a dairy cow.”
Never Buy a Hat If Your Feet Are Cold:
Take Charge of Your Career and Your LifeKEN FELDERSTEIN, title of 1990 book
Never rest on your oars; go forward or you go back.JOHN GALSWORTHY,
from his 1924 play Old English
Never have a companion who casts you in the shade.BALTASAR GRACIÁN
Never lead against a hitter unless you can outhit him.ERNEST HEMINGWAY, in a 1950 New Yorker profile
Hemingway was fond of using boxing metaphors to describe events in his life. In the New Yorker profile, writer Lillian Ross described yet another one that occurred after Hemingway signed a book contract with publisher Charles Scribner. Hemingway put down the pen, rose from the couch, and said, “Never ran as no genius, but I’ll defend the title against all the young new ones.” Assuming a boxing crouch, he then jabbed at the air a few times as he offered his concluding remark: “Never let them hit you solid.”
Never try to take a fortified hill,
especially if the army on top is bigger than your own.WILLIAM HEWLETT, Hewlett-Packard cofounder
A 1992 New York Times article quoted Hewlett as offering this rationale for HP’s decision to avoid direct competition with IBM in the manufacturing of mainframe computers.
Never look for a worm in the apple of your eye.LANGSTON HUGHES
Never insult an alligator until after you’ve crossed the river.CORDELL HULL
Hull was America’s longest-tenured secretary of state, serving from 1934 to 1944. He may have been inspired by an African proverb: “Never test the depth of water with both feet.”
Never give a man a dollar’s worth of blame
without a dime’s worth of praise.L. P. HUNT, U.S. Marine Corps colonel, writing in 1937
Never point a gun at anybody unless you mean business,
and not then if the “business” can be avoided.E. H. KREPS
These days, an admonition like this is considered metaphorical, meaning, “Never make a threat unless you’re willing to back it up.” But when Kreps, a gun safety expert, wrote this in a 1917 article in Fur News, he meant it literally. He added two corollaries:Never let another person point a gun at you, even though you are both sure the gun is not loaded. And never let anybody point a gun at somebody else unless you know he means to shoot him and you feel perfectly sure that he is justified.
Never sell the bear’s skin until you have killed the beast.JEAN DE LA FONTAINE, in his Fables (1668)
La Fontaine, the most famous French poet of his era, also wrote fables in the manner of Aesop and the ancient authors of the Panchatantra. The meaning of this saying is similar to the one about not counting chickens before they are hatched, described earlier. In Further Fables for Our Time (1956), James Thurber contributed a modern version: “Never serve a rabbit stew before you catch the rabbit.”
When you’re angry, never put it in writing.
It’s like carving your anger in stone.ESTÉE LAUDER
Never saw off the branch you are on,
unless you are being hanged from it.STANISLAW JERZY LEC,
in Unkempt Thoughts (1962)
Never dream with thy hand on the helm.HERMAN MELVILLE
The words come from Ishmael, the narrator of Melville’s 1851 classic Moby-Dick. He meant the words literally, but the passage has drifted in a metaphorical direction over the years—now generally meaning that you should never let your mind wander when performing a task that requires your full attention.
Never be a bear on the United States.J. P. MORGAN
In this observation, the legendary banker and financier suggested it was far better to be bullish on America. In investment circles, a bear is someone who anticipates a decline in the market, while a bull purchases stock in the belief that the market will expand. There is no agreement on the precise origin of these terms, but they’ve been used for well over a century to describe expanding and contracting markets. If you’re like me and have had trouble remembering which one is which, here’s a mnemonic device I’ve found helpfuclass="underline" a bull market is a full market; a bear market is a bare market.
Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE, in London à la Mode (1966)
Never carry your shotgun or your knowledge at half-cock.AUSTIN O’MALLEY, in Keystones of Thought (1914)
Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be.CLEMENTINE PADDLEFORD, quoting her mother
In the mid–1900s, Paddleford was one of America’s most influential food editors. Her 1960 book How America Eats is a culinary classic. In her 1958 memoir A Flower for My Mother, she fondly recalled her childhood and this backbone advice from her mother.