Yes yes, said she, for all those wise words uttered,
I know on which side my bread is buttered.
But there will no butter cleave on my bread.
And on my bread any butter to be spread.
Every promise that you therein do utter,
Is as sure as it were sealed with butter.
Part II, chapter 7.
Proverbs (1546)
“I won't quarrel with my bread and butter.”
Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 1
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Jonathan Swift 141
Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet 1667–1745Related quotes
“False hope is the bread - and - butter of my existence, the only thing that keeps me going.”
Source: Working Class Zero (2003), Chapter 11, p. 91
“Besides, they always smell of bread and butter.”
Stanza 39.
Beppo (1818)
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Unplaced as yet by chapter, Ch. 11.
“Butter, bread, and green cheese: whoever cannot say that is not a true Frisian.”
Quoted in: The Linguist: Journal of the Institute of Linguists. Volumes 42-43, The Institute, 2003. p. 192
According to legend, Pier forced his captives to repeat this shibboleth to distinguish Frisians from Dutch and Low Germans.
“Man can not live by bread alone… he must have peanut butter.”