“The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.”

Willie Nelson, quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail February 4, 2008

“Somewhere there’s a headlight looking for this deer.”

Laura Peck (on Gilles Duceppe on TV) in National Post May 25, 2004

“an old family friend … a retired auto-shop teacher, the sort of guy who knows about wrenches, who even has views on wrenches.”

Kevin Bolger in Ottawa Citizen March 12, 1999

An “indignity [that] would incite a stone to be revenged.”

Samuel Pepys in his Diary Nov. 22 1666, about a supposed insult by Louis XIV of France to Charles II of England, specifically dressing all his footmen in a garment Charles favoured as the height of fashion.

“I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time.”

Charlie Brown in “Peanuts” (I have seen others use it in some form but I believe Schulz got there first)

“Unless a louse could really leap, believe you me, She wouldn’t go walking on that weave, it was so threadbare.”

William Langland Piers Plowman (edited, introduced and annotated by Elizabeth D. Kirk and Judith H. Anderson) Passus V ll. 196-97 (describing Covetousness’ shabby appearance)

“His workers liked to say that he always arrived at meetings in a freshly rumpled suit.”

Luke Sharpe in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 4 #7 (re Leo Burnet, a great adman responsible for all sorts of icons including Tony the Tiger, the Jolly Green Giant, and the Pillsbury Doughboy)

“Mick Jagger told me that the lines on his face were laughter lines, but nothing is that funny.”

British jazz singer George Melly, quoted as “Thought du jour” in “Social Studies” in Globe & Mail August 4, 2005