I wish I could remember where I got these. I’m pretty sure it was a markov chain, trained on common idioms and placed on someone’s website, likely linked to from an IRC I was in, or on hacker news, and I think I just refreshed it over and over and kept the ones that stood out? But it’s also possible that someone wrote these exact things, and compiled them into this specific list intentionally… I searched a few on google though, and found no results!

So while I can take no credit for their brilliance, these have been in a text file on my computer since about February 2017 — time to set them free:

“A bad workman is king.”
“Practice is the best medicine.”
“Every cloud costs lives.”
“Pride doesn’t grow on trees.”
“A chain never strikes twice.”
“Doubt is the sweetest fruit.”
“A golden key is no use.”
“Live for today, for tomorrow never strikes twice.”
“Half a loaf washes the other.”
“Half a loaf must be endured.”
“Fools and horses are all that cost lives.”
“Beauty abhors a vacuum.”
“Honesty corrupts absolutely.”
“Two is company, but three makes strange bedfellows.”
“Talk makes the most noise.”
“Crime dies young.”
“Those who don’t learn from history never forget.”
“The pen is always right.”
“Speak of the devil and he gets monkeys.”
“An empty barrel happens.”
“Lightning makes lemonade.”
“Those who can, do; those who can’t, must be endured.”
“Power corrupts; absolute power will never hurt me.”
“Hindsight is always greener on the other side.”
“Failing to plan wins.”
“When the going gets tough, the tough are golden.”
“The love of money is hot.”
“A little knowledge wasn’t built in a day.”
“Two heads are the best form of defence.”
“Give a man enough rope and he doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“Money is king.”
“Great minds are the bottom line.”
“If you pay peanuts, you are cheap.”
“Every dog may look at a king.”
“A free lunch is next to godliness.”
“Tuesday’s child is just a bowl of cherries.”
“Lightning is nine-tenths of the law.”