No one will believe that he loves it the more for any such extravagant demonstration.
Many irons in the fire, some will cool.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Ower mony greeves [overseers] hinder the wark.—Scotch.
"Too many tirewomen make the bride ill dressed" (Spanish).[335] "If the sailors become too numerous the ship sinks" (Arab).
A bow o'erbent will weaken.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
"This nation, the northern part of it especially, is given to believe in the sovereign efficacy of dulness. To be sure, dulness and solid vice are apt to go hand in hand. But then, according to our notions, dulness is in itself so good a thing—almost a religion. Now, if ever a people required to be amused, it is we sad-hearted Anglo-Saxons. Heavy eaters, hard thinkers, often given up to a peculiar melancholy of our own, with a climate that for months together would frown away mirth if it could—many of us with very gloomy thoughts about our hereafter. If ever there were a people who should avoid increasing their dulness by all work and no play, we are that people. 'They took their pleasure sadly,' says Froissart, 'after their fashion.' We need not ask of what nation Froissart was speaking."—(Friends in Council.)
The mill that is always grinding grinds coarse and fine together.—Irish.
"The pot that boils too much loses flavour" (Portuguese).[336]
Play's gude while it is play.—Scotch.
Beware of pushing it to that point at which it ceases to be play. "Leave off the play (or jest) when it is merriest" (Spanish).[337] Never let it degenerate into horse play. "Manual play is clowns' play" (French).[338]
A man may make his own dog bite him.