=Make hay while the sun shines=
is peculiar to England, and, as Trench remarks, could have had its
birth only under such variable skies as ours.
=Take the ball at the hop.=
=Take time while time is, for time will away.=
=Time and tide wait for no man.=
"God keep you from 'It is too late'" (Spanish).[515] "A little too
late, much too late" (Dutch).[516] "Stay but a while, you lose a mile"
(Dutch).[517]
=After a delay comes a let.=
=Delays are dangerous.=
Especially in affairs of love and marriage. Therefore, "When thy
daughter's chance comes, wait not her father's coming from the market"
(Spanish).[518] Close with the offer on the spot. "When the fool has
made up his mind the market has gone by" (Spanish).[519]
=He that will not when he may,
When he will he shall have nay.=
"Some refuse roast meat, and afterwards long for the smoke of it"
(Italian).[520]
=The nearer the church, the farther from God.=
"Next to the minster, last to mass" (French).[521] "The nearer to
Rome, the worse Christian" (Dutch).[522] The buyer of many books will
probably read few of them, and somebody has said that he never was
afraid of engaging in a controversy with the owner of a large library.
Many a Londoner would never see half its lions but for the necessity of
showing them to country cousins.
=The shoemaker's wife goes worst shod.=
Where the best wine is made the worst is commonly drunk. Better fish is
to be had in Billingsgate than on the seacoast.