An aver is a cart horse.
One leg of a lark is worth the whole body of a kite.
A piece of a kid is worth two of a cat.
Bray a fool in a mortar, he'll be never the wiser.
"To wash an ass's head is loss of suds" (French).[149] "The malady that is incurable is folly" (Spanish).[150]
There's no washing a blackamoor white.
"Wash a dog, comb a dog, still a dog is but a dog" (French).[151]
A hog in armour is still but a hog.
An ape is an ape, a varlet's a varlet,
Though he be clad in silk and scarlet.
There's no getting white flour out of a coal-sack.
"Whatever the bee sucks turns to honey, and whatever the wasp sucks turns to venom" (Portuguese).[152]
Eagles catch no flies.
Literally translated from a Latin adage[153] much used by Queen Christina, of Sweden, who affected a superb disdain for petty details. The Romans had another proverbial expression for the same idea:—"The prætor takes no heed of very small matters,"[154] for his was a superior court, and did not try cases of minor importance. Our modern lawyers have retained the classical adage, only substituting the word "law" for "prætor." They say, "De minimis non curat lex," which might, perhaps, be freely translated, "Lawyers don't stick at trifles."