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

[Paul Frank]

>> On dit proverbialement, on ne fait point d'aumelette sans casser des œufs, pour marquer qu'il y a certaines chôfes absolument néceflà ires pour l'éxécution des affaires.
>
> My French is nonexistent, so I'll leave to to someone else to correct
> the diacritics and figure an exact translation.
>
> VS-)

I don't know the old French spelling, but this is how you'd write this today:

On dit proverbialement, on ne fait point d'omelette sans casser des
oeufs, pour marquer qu'il y a certaines choses absolument nécessaires
pour l'exécution des affaires.

Roughly translated, it means:

As the proverb says, one doesn't make an omelette without breaking
eggs, meaning that some things are absolutely necessary to get things
done.

Cheers,
Paul

Paul Frank
Translator
Chinese, German, French, Italian > English
Espace de l'Europe 16
Neuchâtel, Switzerland
mobile +41 79 957 5318
paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
paulfrank at post.harvard.edu

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org