Re: What
one does need, is dear a penny
Posted by Bruce
Kahl on February 01, 2002 In Reply to: Re:
what one does need, is dear a penny posted by ESC on February 01, 2002
: : : Hi everybody!
: : : Pleased to meet you. I'm a Spanish free-lance
translator and I'm just happy that I've found you ;-)
: : : I hope you can
help me with this sentence:
: : : "Nothing is cheap which is superfluous, for
what one does need, is dear at a penny".
: : : I think I've understood its
meaning (perhaps: superfluous things are always expensive; necessary things are
not). But I wonder if it is a phrase used in specific situations and even if I
have undestood it correctly.
: : : Thanks in advance.
: : : MARTA
: :
Dear Marta,
: : I have a different understanding of the phrase. I think it means
that nothing that isn't a necessity is can be considered cheap because what one
absolutely needs is expensive.
: : Imagine an unemployed person offered an
ridiculously cheap price for a trip to Spain. Unfortunately because this person
can barely pay for the necessities, so it doesn't matter how inexpensive the trip
is, it can't be considered cheap.
: : 'Dear' is used here in the sense of expensive.
: : I haven't heard the phrase used before. Where did you find it?
: I haven't
heard this phrase either. The first part is easy to understand. If you buy something
useless at a reduced price,(like a ship in the desert), it's not really a savings.
You've wasted your money.
: I'm having trouble with the second part. If you
really need something (like a heart transplant) it is cheap at any price. But
"what one does need, is dear at a penny" doesn't say that to me. One of the meanings
of "dear" is "expensive." ("Dictionary of Word Origins: the Histories of More
Than 8,000 English-Language Words" by John Ayto; Arcade Publishing, New York,
1990). Something you really, really need wouldn't be expensive at a penny.
:
R. Berg? Can you clear this up. I've muddied it enough.
"Nothing is cheap that
is superfluous,
for what one does not need is dear at a penny."
Mestrius
Plutarchus a.k.a Plutarch (circa 45 - 125 A.D.)
Another famous person said almost
the same thing but in a different way:
"Sometimes one pays most for the things
one gets for nothing."
-- Albert Einstein
- Re:
Dear at a penny R. Berg 02/01/02 (5)
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