Old-Fashioned Fruitcake
To the great Variety of Readers.
From the moſt able, to him that can but ſpell: There you are number’d. We had rather you were weighd. Eſpecially, when the fate of all Bookes depends vpon your capacities : and not of your heads alone, but of your purſes. Well! It is now publique, & you wil ſtand for your priuiledges wee know : to read, and cenſure. Do ſo, but buy it firſt.
from the Introduction to the First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s Works, 1623.
The last time I went to the dentist, I heard those three magic words: just a clean.
But it was not always this way. On the contrary, I was once told I needed no fewer than six fillings. And practically the first time I visited a dentist without needing fillings, it was time for… a root canal.
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To make a Barren Tree bear Fruit
Having girt and tucked up your clothes, and having taken an axe or hatchet, approach the tree with resentment, wishing to cut it down: but when any body comes to you, and deprecates the cutting of it, as if responsible for a future crop, seem to be persuaded, and to spare the tree, and it will fruit well in future.
Thomas Owen, Agricultural Pursuits (a translation of Geoponika, 1805-6)
quoted in Lost Crafts: Rediscovering Traditional Skills by Una McGovern