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Various phrases

Posted by ESC on May 09, 2009 at 13:19

In Reply to: Various phrases posted by ESC on May 09, 2009 at 12:21:

: : I would like to know the origins of the following four often-used sayings or idioms or punch-lines, for which Googling failed to provide origins in spite of thousands of results. Can anyone help me, please?:

: : "The Devil always looks after his own"
: : (This one has a similar purport to "Only the good die young", which has previously been given an origin here.)

: : "In war, Truth is always the first casualty"

: : "Lies get halfway around the world before Truth can even get its/his running-shoes on"

: : "With friends like him, who needs enemies?"

: A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on. C.H. Spurgeon, Gems from Spurgeon, 1859. Earlier version, Portland (Me.) Gazette, 5 Sept 1820: Falsehood will fly from Maine to Georgia, while truth is pulling her boots on. Still earlier, Jonathan Swift wrote in The Examiner, 9 Nov. 1710: Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it. Page 615.

The devil looks after his own. Eighteenth century proverb. "Oxford Dictionary of Quotations," Fifth Edition, edited by Elizabeth Knowles (Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2001).

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