Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[www0935]

Hi,
Would you please help me with these questions?

Which of the following English proverbs are correct?

"Care killed the cat." or "Care kills the cat."

"Curiosity killed the cat." or "Curiosity kills the cat."

Is there any proverb using "past tense"?

Best regards

[Jacob K.]

"Care killed the cat."

This comes from Ben Jonson's play Every Man in His Humour, 1598:

"Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care'll kill a Cat, up-tails all, and a Louse for the Hangman."

"Curiosity killed the cat."

This proverb originates from the above proverb, though curiosity replaces care. This excerpt explains it better than I can:

"Curiosity hasn't received a good press over the centuries. Saint Augustine wrote in Confessions, AD 397, that, in the eons before creating heaven and earth, God "fashioned hell for the inquisitive". John Clarke, in Paroemiologia, 1639 suggested that "He that pryeth into every cloud may be struck with a thunderbolt". In Don Juan, Lord Byron called curiosity "that low vice". That bad opinion, and the fact that cats are notoriously inquisitive, lead to the source of their demise being changed from 'care' to 'curiosity'."

Sources: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/curiosity-killed-the-cat.html