Our Daily Bleg: Got Anything Else Like “Sh*t Happens”?

Here’s the most recent guest bleg from Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations. His past blegs can be found here.

Last week about 100 people responded to my blegging for examples of famous computer proverbs. In general, proverb dictionaries are filled with traditional sayings like “A stitch in time saves nine,” ignoring modern proverbs. Yet modern proverbs proliferate constantly and are among our most colorful and popular expressions: “Sh*t happens,” “It takes a village to raise a child,” “Never criticize anybody until you have walked a mile in his shoes,” “The customer is always right,” “Different strokes for different folks,” “The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings,” “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch,” “If anything can go wrong, it will.”

For a forthcoming book of modern proverbs, I would welcome suggestions of additional contemporary proverbs of all kinds.