It is not wise to overstrain authority, or to drive even the weakest or most submissive to desperation.
A baited cat may grow as fierce as a lion.
Put a coward on his mettle and he'll fight the devil.
Make a bridge of gold for the flying enemy.
Extremes meet.
A proverb of universal application in the physical as well as the moral world. Every one knows the saying of Napoleon, "From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
Too far east is west.
No feast to a miser's.
FOOTNOTES:
[317] Assai è rico a chi non manca.
[318] Assez n'y a, si trop n'y a.
[319] Trop n'est pas assez.
[320] La codicia rompe il saco.
[321] Chi troppo abbraccia, nulla stringe. Qui trop embrasse, mal étreint.