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.ESTEE 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 helpful: 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 a 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.
Never throw mud.
You may miss your mark; but you must have dirty hands.JOSEPH PARKER, in Hidden Springs (1864)
Since the Roman Empire, throwing dirt has been a metaphor for hurling scurrilous and unsubstantiated charges against an adversary. The ancient practice was even promoted in a Latin proverb: “Throw plenty of dirt; some of it will be sure to stick.” In The New Language of Politics (1968), William Safire wrote that dirt-throwing began to be called mud-throwing or mudslinging shortly after the Civil War. It’s possible that Parker, an English clergyman, was partly responsible for the shift in terms. In a sermon from his 1864 book, he strongly advised against descending to personal attacks, saying, “Nothing is easier than to use bad names; but bad names are bad arguments.”
Never date a woman you can hear ticking.MARK PATINKIN, on dating women who
are watching their biological time clocks
Never despise a bridge which carries you safely over.AFRICAN PROVERB
Proverbs from many nations and cultural traditions have been expressed metaphorically. Here are a few more, along with their likely place of origin.
Never try to catch two frogs with one hand.(China)
Never show your teeth unless you’re prepared to bite.(France)
Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.(Ireland)
Never bolt your door with a boiled carrot.(Ireland)
Never take the antidote before the poison.(Italy)
Never let anyone see the bottom of your purse or your mind.(Italy)
Never bet the farm.AMERICAN PROVERB
To “bet the farm” is a longstanding metaphor about risking everything on a gamble. In 2006, Anthony Iaquinto and Stephen Spinelli borrowed the expression to title a book: Never Bet the Farm: How Entrepreneurs Take Risks, Make Decisions—and How You Can, Too. In their book, the two men laid out fifteen principles of entrepreneurial success. One was “Never bet the farm,” and another was “Never reach for a gallon when you only need a quart.” This latter saying could be interpreted in a number of ways, but Iaquinto and Spinelli applied it to setting goals, especially financial goals. They wrote:Why set overly ambitious goals that substantially increase your chances of being disappointed, regretful, and angry? Instead, set more modest goals that have a greater chance for success—goals that could still
