
“You should never hesitate to trade your cow for a handful of magic beans.”
Source: Into the Woods
“You should never hesitate to trade your cow for a handful of magic beans.”
Symbol 37; This was long thought by many to be simply a dietary proscription, and often ridiculed, but many consider it to have originally been intended as advice against getting involved in politics, for voting on issues in his time was often done by using differently colored beans. Others have stated that it might signify a more general admonition against relying on the votes of people to determine truths of reality. The explanation provided in the translation used here states: "This Symbol admonishes us to beware of everything which is corruptive of our converse with the gods and divine prophecy."
The Symbols
Variant: Abstain from animals.
“He's hit the beans on toast.”
Interview on Rileys' News http://www.rileys.co.uk/news/240.
"The Jelly-Bean"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)
“This ogress will want to catch two beans with one pigeon.”
Act II., Scene II. — (Golpe).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 393.
La Trinuzia (published 1549)
“649. A beane in liberty is better than a comfit in prison.”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
“Red roses for young lovers. French beans for longstanding relationships”
Source: Ruskin Bond's Book Of Nature