Once a use and ever a custom.
Meaning: Repeated actions solidify into habits that become difficult to break or question.
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 Human Nature
- They love dancing well that dance among thorns. — Those who find joy in difficult circumstances demonstrate true resilience and optimism.
- He that waits for a dead man's shoes may go long enough barefoot. — Relying on inheritance or another's misfortune for your welfare courts poverty and hardsh…
- What one man despises, another craves. — Individual values differ so radically that one person's rejection becomes another's treas…
- Every man for himself, and God for us all. — Self-interest and communal welfare coexist; individual responsibility doesn't negate coll…
- Experience is the mistress of fools. — Fools learn only through painful mistakes, while the wise learn from others' errors befor…
- What the eye sees not, the heart rues not. — Ignorance of misfortune shields us from suffering its emotional weight.
From our untranslatable words
- Blunda — To close your eyes on purpose — and, by extension, to knowingly refuse to see something.
- Fredagsmys — The Friday-night ritual of soft clothes, snacks and television with the people you live w…
- Gökotta — Rising at first light for no reason but to go outside and hear the birds sing.