Song 20: "Against Idleness and Mischief".
1710s, Divine Songs Attempted in the Easy Language of Children (1715)
“Jewels, lies, slips of paper, dried flowers, memories of thing long past, useless quotations, idle hands, beads, buttons, and mischief.”
Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
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Holly Black 160
American children's fiction writer 1971Related quotes
Source: My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 9 (Education At Bangalore).
Robertson Davies Dangerous Jewels (1960).
'Tis but a Little Faded Flower, reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 12.
Italics in original
The Fashion in Shrouds, New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2008, chapter six, p. 58 (Originally published in 1938)
In standard English the italicized text means, "It's crazy to give a policeman the bribe in counterfeit money." It was popularized as a nonsense catchphrase by Mad magazine.
Fiction Writings