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Love and a cough cannot be hid.

Meaning: Genuine affection, like illness, inevitably reveals itself through visible signs despite attempts at concealment.

Origin: From 'A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases' (1870). Public domain.

Translations

  • French: Amour, toux, fumée, et argent, ne se peuvent cacher longuement (literally: Love, a cough, smoke, and money, cannot long be hid)

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