Many a good cow hath had a bad calf.
Meaning: Good parentage cannot guarantee virtuous offspring; heredity alone does not determine character.
Origin: Recorded in A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, an undated collection published in London by Whittaker & Co. around 1880 and credited to Thomas Preston. Its earlier history hasn't been traced.
More proverbs about Morality
- Of all crafts, to be an honest man is the master-craft. — Honesty requires greater skill and discipline than any technical profession.
- Crafty evasions save not the truth. — Clever dodging and indirect answers ultimately fail to conceal what is genuinely real.
- Creditors have better memories than debtors. — Those owed money recall their claims far more vividly than those owing it wish to remembe…
- The crow thinks her own bird fairest. — Parents naturally believe their children excel above all others, blinding them to objecti…
- A bad custom is like a good cake, better broken than kept. — Harmful habits deteriorate further if preserved, but improve immediately when deliberatel…
- It is as good to be in the dark as without light. — Darkness without awareness of it equals blindness; ignorance becomes comfortable when une…
From our idioms
- rock the boat — To disrupt the status quo or challenge established conventions and rules.
- body English — Subtle body movements a person makes to coax a moving object toward a desired direction,…
- above the salt — Of high social rank, importance, or honor.