"He that goes too hastily along often stumbles on a fair road" (French).[331] "Reason lies between the bridle and the spur" (Italian).[332]
Draw not your bow till your arrow is fixed.
He that rides ere he be ready wants some o' his graith.—Scotch.
He leaves some of his accoutrements behind him. Perhaps one reason why "It is good to have a hatch before your door" is, that it may act as a check upon such unprofitable haste. Sydney Smith adopted a similar expedient, which he called a screaming gate. "We all arrived once," he said, "at a friend's house just before dinner, hot, tired, and dusty—a large party assembled—and found all the keys of our trunks had been left behind. Since then I have established a screaming gate. We never set out on our journey now without stopping at a gate about ten minutes' distance from the house, to consider what we have left behind. The result has been excellent."
Two hungry meals make the third a glutton.
Excess in one direction induces excess in the opposite direction.
Soft fire makes sweet malt.
More flies are caught with a drop of honey than with a tun of vinegar.
"Gentleness does more than violence" (French).[333] "The gentle calf sucks all the cows" (Portuguese).[334]
Ower hot, ower cauld.—Scotch.
"It may be a fire—on the morrow it will be ashes" (Arab). Violent passions are apt to subside quickly. "Soon fire, soon ashes" (Dutch).
A man may love his house weel, and no ride on the riggin [roof] o't.—Scotch.