Proverb: A Friend to all, is a Friend to none.

Wed Oct 2 21:19:49 UTC 2013

Great! Thank you very much for your efforts checking multiple
references and EEBO, Charlie.

EEBO is a valuable database and it is unfortunate that access seems to
be so tightly restricted.

Garson

On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 10:28 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Proverb: A Friend to all, is a Friend to none.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The 1623 citation comes from M. P. Tilley's _Dictionary of the Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_ (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1950), p. 243; the proverb is Tilley's item no. F698, entered in the form "A friend to all is a friend to none."
>
>
> The proverb also appears in the _Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs_, third ed., edited by F. P. Wilson (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970), p. 290; it is entered in the form "A friend to everybody is a friend to nobody."  Wilson adds an instance from 1642.
>
>
> John Wodroephe's _Sacred Houres of a Souldier, or The True Marrowe of the French Tongue_ (1623) does appear in EEBO, but it is not searchable.  Our item can be found on p. 475, column 2 (that's sig. 2Q4r--and EEBO's image no. 239), in a section titled "Proverbes, and Proverbiale Sentences":  "All Mens Friend, ne Mans Friend: or who hath many Friends hath none at all."
>
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole [adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2013 9:04 PM
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> JL: I appreciate your help. Thank you very much for searching EEBO.
>
> Here is an update. Dictionary of Proverbs by George Latimer Apperson
> points to "Diogenes Laertius, V i" for the Aristotle ascription. Maybe
> the statement below attributed to Aristotle is supposed to be
> equivalent to the modern proverb: A friend to all, is a friend to
> none.
>
> Lives of the Eminent Philosophers/Book V by Diogenes Laertius,
> Section: Aristotle
> http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_V
>
> [Being excerpt]
> Favorinus in the second book of his Memorabilia mentions as one of his
> habitual sayings that "He who has friends can have no true friend."
> Further, this is found in the seventh book of the Ethics.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Apparently there is a citation in 1623 but the phrasing is different.
> A Dictionary of American Proverbs claims a cite in 1623. But the
> correct wording is probably given in the 1907 citation further below.
>
> Google Books has "The Spared Houres of a Soldier in His Travels" in
> "No Preview" mode which might mean it is a reprint.
>
> Do you know of EEBO  has "The Spared Houres of a Soldier" by Wodroephe?
>
> Title: A Dictionary of American Proverbs
> Author: Wolfgang Mieder, Stewart A. Kingsbury, Kelsie B. Harder
> Year: 1992
> (Google Books preview)
> http://books.google.com/books?id=AbJ1tVGmiTgC&q=%22to+nobody%22#v=snippet&
> [Being excerpt]
> A friend to all is a friend to none. Vars.:
> (a) A friend to everyone is a friend to nobody.
> (b) Everybody's companion is nobody's friend.
> Rec. dist.: U.S., Can. 1st cit.: 1623Wodroephe , Spared Houres of
> Soldier. 20c. coll.: ODEP 290,Stevenson 890:6.
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> Year: 1907
> Title: English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases
> Author: William Carew Hazlitt (W. Carew Hazlitt)
> Publisher: Reeves and Turner, London
> [Begin excerpt]
> All men's friend, no man's friend. w.
>
> Or, who hath many friends hath none at all. "Some tymes most true,
> because Friends are so euill (now a Dayes), that a Thousand can scarce
> affoord one good - Wodroephe, 1623.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 7:42 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Proverb: A Friend to all, is a Friend to none.
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> From the same primary year (courtesy EEBO):
>>
>> 1658 John Jones, trans. _Ovid's Invective or Curse against Ibis_  (Oxford:
>> Ric. Davis) 119: He that is a friend to all, is a friend to none; he that
>> sincerely is a friend to one, is truly a friend to himself: for a friend is
>> second self. [sic]
>>
>> In fact, it may even be slightly earlier. Someone has altered with a pen or
>> pencil the "1658" title-page date to "1657."
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 3:31 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
>>> wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Proverb: A Friend to all, is a Friend to none.
>>>
>>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> A book editor asked me about the saying "A friend to all is a friend
>>> to none" which is dubiously attributed to Aristotle by brainyquote,
>>> thinkexist, goodreads, and other websites packed with imaginative
>>> data.
>>>
>>> Google Books seems to have cites in 1658 and 1732. Any suggestions for
>>> discovering more about this saying?
>>>
>>> Year: 1658
>>> Title: Ta diapheronta, or, Divine characters: in two parts : acutely
>>> distinguishing the more secret and undiscerned differences between 1.
>>> the hypocrite in his best dresse of seeming virtues and formal duties,
>>> and the true Christian in his real graces and sincere obedience ...,
>>> 2. the blackest weeds of ...
>>> Authors: C.B. and W.G.
>>> Printed for Adonir am Byfeild at the three Bibles in Corn-hill, London
>>> Chapter: XXV
>>> Page: 343
>>>
>>>
>>> http://books.google.com/books?id=MtPNAAAAMAAJ&q=%22friend+to+all%22#v=snippet&
>>>
>>> [Begin excerpt]
>>> But he that is a friend to all men, is a friend to no man, and least
>>> of all to himself. For he must promise so much, that he cannot
>>> performe withall: and so breaking promise with some, he is trusted at
>>> length by none.
>>> [End excerpt]
>>>
>>>
>>> Year: 1732   M.DCC.XXXII
>>> Title: Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty
>>> Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British
>>> Colected by Thomas Fuller
>>> Quote Page 5
>>> Printed for B. Barker, A. Bettesworth and C. Hitch, London
>>>
>>> [Begin excerpt]
>>> A Friend to all, is a Friend to none.
>>> [End excerpt]
>>>
>>> Thanks for your help,
>>> Garson
>
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