More than tongue can tell

Posted by RRC on July 05, 2009 at 17:49

In Reply to: More than ton can tell posted by Ben on July 04, 2009 at 22:12:

: There is a phrase that I hear infrequently but most recently I heard it in a replay of a 1960's Twilight Zone episode. I believe it is "More than ton (sp?) can tell." Is that a literary quote? I think I have heard it also as "More than time can tell".

I think you're hearing "More than tongue can tell". It and variations such as "no tongue can tell" appear quite early, e.g. I found a couple of hymns from the 1800's. It's hard to find an exact date as I don't know which variation would be the earliest one to search on. Perhaps one of the other posters will have a better grip on it.
The phrase with "time" is usually "only time will tell".