Proverb: omlets are not made without breaking eggs (antedating 1796 May)

[Charles C Doyle]

The _Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs_ (3rd ed., 1970; 594) gives, from 1815, "On ne peut pas faire des omelettes sans casser les oeufs."  That's early enough to make one wonder whether a French proverb might lie behind the Englsih proverb.

Burton Stevenson's _Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases_ (1948; 1230) cites "Robespierre, _Epigram_. (c. 1790)"--with no other information.

--Charlie

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From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Garson O'Toole [adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM]
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 11:57 AM
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You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Oxford Reference online lists this proverb in three texts: "A
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", "Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs" and
"Oxford Dictionary of Quotations: Proverbs."

The OED (April 2009) also lists this saying as a phrase under the
headword omelette. The Yale Book of Quotations has it, and Fred
discussed it on the Quotes Uncovered blog on Thursday. The earliest
cite given in these references is for a variant in 1859. Eric M. Jones
posted an 1804 cite as a blog comment yesterday. The following cite
pushes back to an earlier century:

Cite: 1796 May, Walker's Hibernian magazine, Some Particulars
Respecting the Capture of Charette, Page 411, Printed by R. Gibson.
(Google Books full view)

It was remarked to him that he had caused the death if a great many
persons. Yes, he replied, omlets are not made without breaking eggs.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Z7wRAAAAYAAJ&q=toilets#v=snippet&
http://books.google.com/books?id=Z7wRAAAAYAAJ&

The "omlets" spelling is tricky, but the OCR exacerbates the search
problem because the word is recognized as "toilets". Also, the phrase
is broken because the two column structure is incorrectly interpreted
and the columns are combined.

Garson

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