Phrase of the day

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Ever heard?

Oh yes. And I have always thought that a sow's ear purse would look much nicer than a silk one ...

I think it depends on the colour of the sow’s ear….

So are we discussing here, how long will which purse keep?

Or which material will better meet a person's style?

Country girl, country style - so it's the sow's ear-purse for me - 'purse' is just too nice for this. It's a handbag. By the way I really have a little 'purse' made of hogskin.

Well I'm sure that there are many purses and bags made of hogskin/pigskin and we don't even know it.

Just to make it clear for those who never heard the phrase before the German translation could be: "von nichts kommt nichts".

Eine frühere Kollegin von mir sagte immer: "Man kann von einem Ochsen nicht mehr verlangen als ein gutes Stück Rindfleisch". Passt auch gut als Übersetzung, finde ich!

What about the today´s phrase of the day?

My phrase of today:

Don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

German translations:
- Von nichts kommt nichts
- Aus einem Ackergaul kann man kein Rennpferd machen
- Aus einem Kieselstein kann man keinen Diamanten schleifen

Don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Should be "molehill"

German translation:
- Mach aus einer Mücke keinen Elefanten.