One cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs (1856 attrib Pelissier) pancakes (1804 attrib Charette)

[Garson O'Toole]

The saying about omelets and breaking eggs is sometimes attributed to
Maximilien Robespierre or Napoleon Bonaparte. In "The Quote Verifier"
Ralph Keyes says it is a "centuries old proverb – found in many
languages in a variety of forms". Keyes also states that quotographer
Burton Stevenson says the French version of the expression predates
Robespierre or Bonaparte.

This post is about the English language version of the saying in the
written record.

YBQ has a Robert Louis Stevenson citation from 1897 and also gives an
1859 citation from the Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs.

Below is an earlier 1856 citation that is interesting because it shows
transmission from a French speaker to an English speaker. The passage
containing the quote is written by a military man who is discussing
different battlefield strategies. One strategy he considers would have
increased the number of causalities suffered by his troops:

Our loss would of course have been greater, but our success would have
been more complete; and, as Pelissier observed, One cannot make
omelettes without breaking eggs.

Citation: "Journal of Adventures with the British Army, from the
commencement of the war to the taking of Sebastopol - Volume II" by
George Cavendish Taylor, page 231, Hurst and Blackett, London, 1856.

http://books.google.com/books?id=bm4UH_r7pa0C&pg=PA231&#v=onepage&q=breaking%20eggs&f=false

The Britannica says that Pelissier was a "French general who
distinguished himself in the conquest of Algeria and was the last
French commander in chief in the Crimean War."

Below is an 1859 New York Times citation that indicates that the
proverb was known in London at that time as a French proverb.

"If you want to make an omelet," says the French proverb, "you must
not mind breaking the eggs;" but there are omelets yet to be made, and
it is not quite clear how the eggs are to be laid wherewith to make
them.

Citation: "BRITISH OPINION—DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF THE VILLAFRANCA
PROGRAMME, From the London Times" The New York Times, page 2, New
York, New York, 1859-08-02.

A variant of the expression with pancakes substituted for omelets
appears many years before this in 1804. The expression is attributed
to Charette who was a leader of French royalist counterrevolutionary
forces according to Britannica:

They said to him, you have made us lose a great many men. "Ah! one
cannot make pancakes without breaking eggs."

Citation: "Sketch of the Life and Death of Charette, the Famous Leader
of the Vendean War", The Literary Magazine, Page 562, Vol. II, No. 13,
October, 1804.

http://books.google.com/books?id=FB0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA562&#v=onepage&q=pancakes&f=false

A multilingual proverb book from 1857 lists the pancake variant of the
proverb but does not appear to list the omelet version. "There is no
making pancakes without breaking the eggs" is matched to the following
proverbs.

Spanish proverb: No se hacen tortillas sin romper huevos.
Italian proverb: Chi non rompe le uova, non fa la frittata.

"A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs" by Henry G. Bohn, London, 1857.

http://books.google.com/books?id=smQUAAAAYAAJ&q=%22breaking+eggs%22#v=snippet&q=%22breaking%20eggs%22&f=false

Garson O'Toole

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