Proverb

[wolfinthewood]

At the moment, I am not able to post more than a few sentences at a time on LiveJournal. It appears to be to do with the Denial of Service attacks that are going on.

So I shall give you a proverb that I heard from a Welsh farmer near St Davids in Pembrokeshire just a few years ago. When I asked him about it, he seemed to think it was well known, but so far I have not found it in any dictionary or collection of proverbs:

You’ll catch more bees with honey than with vinegar.

Comments

[cavalaxis]

I've heard it as "flies" instead of "bees", and it's a fairly standard proverb over here in the States.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

And in the UK.

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

Not a proverb I knew; but that means nothing. What is slightly odd is that so far as I can see it isn't in _The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs_ (Third edition) in any form. However, now I have the clue to search under 'flies' I have been able to find it in Apperson's English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, which cites a version of it from Thomas Fuller's _Gnomologia_ (1732).

[wolfinthewood.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! You have given me the clue I needed to trace it. Apperson's English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases (1929) records that it is first found in 1732, in the form 'More flies are taken with a drop of honey than a tun of vinegar'.