TABLE OF CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
| I. | Waste not, want not | [ 1] |
| II. | Looking for a needle in a haystack | [ 2] |
| III. | All’s well that ends well | [ 3] |
| IV. | Faint heart never won fair lady | [ 5] |
| V. | Truth is stranger than fiction | [ 7] |
| VI. | A rose by any other name | [ 10] |
| VII. | A little knowledge is a dangerous thing | [ 12] |
| VIII. | Two wrongs do not make a right | [ 14] |
| IX. | Business is business | [ 16] |
| X. | Let sleeping dogs lie | [ 19] |
| XI. | It’s never too late to mend | [ 20] |
| XII. | Ars longa, vita brevis | [ 24] |
| XIII. | Sunt certi denique fines | [ 30] |
| XIV. | Heaven helps those that help themselves | [ 35] |
| XV. | “You never can tell” | [ 37] |
| XVI. | United we stand | [ 41] |
| XVII. | Ici-Gît | [ 44] |
| XVIII. | Silence is golden | [ 45] |
| XIX. | Look before you leap | [ 48] |
| XX. | Liberty, Equality, Fraternity | [ 52] |
| XXI. | Quis separabit? | [ 53] |
| XXII. | Men, not measures | [ 55] |
| XXIII. | You cannot have your cake and eat it | [ 62] |
| XXIV. | In vino veritas | [ 66] |
| XXV. | Tantae religio | [ 71] |
| XXVI. | On entertaining angels unawares | [ 73] |
| XXVII. | Tempus fugit | [ 77] |
| XXVIII. | You can take a horse to the water | [ 78] |
| XXIX. | Half a loaf is better than no bread | [ 80] |
| XXX. | In for a penny, in for a pound | [ 84] |
| XXXI. | Quantity is better than quality | [ 89] |
| XXXII. | Charity begins at home | [ 95] |
| XXXIII. | Dis aliter visum | [ 99] |
| XXXIV. | Parallel lines do not meet | [ 109] |
| XXXV. | Cherchez le juif | [ 111] |
| XXXVI. | [γνῶθι σεαυτον] | [ 119] |
| XXXVII. | E pur si muove | [ 120] |
| XXXVIII. | The game and the candle | [ 124] |
| XXXIX. | Once bitten twice shy | [ 126] |
| XL. | It takes two to make a peace | [ 127] |
| XLI. | Vicisti Galilæe | [ 130] |
I
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
WHEN Haroun-al-Raschid (of whom I have told you before, and if I haven’t it is only because I have forgotten) was having a bath they wouldn’t let him splash. “By the beard of Allah,” he observed mildly to the Vizier, who was standing by with his favourite celluloid duck (guaranteed to float), “this is preposterous. Cannot the Commander of the Faithful splash a little water? What’s the good of being a King, that’s what I say?” “Sire,” replied the Vizier, handing him the celluloid duck, “the higher, the fewer the pleasures of life. And remember in season the saying, ‘Waste not, want not.’”
The following day torrential rains of unprecedented severity visited Bagdad, sweeping away houses and gardens and drowning, among others, in circumstances of peculiar discomfort, the Grand Vizier. “Well,” said Haroun, splashing in his bath (and hitting the opposite wall, mind you), “that only shows.”