another unlisted proverb

[Jonathan Lighter]

A familiar American saying not in YBQ:

1942 Dashiel Hammett & Jonathan Latimer _The Glass Key_ (film): When you
start a fight, you finish it!

Earlier version:

1921 E. S. Chamberlayne _The Little Back Room_ (N.Y.: Stokes) 227: I don't
want to start a fight unless I can finish it.

GB results suggest that the usual form is "Never start a fight, but always
finish it."

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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