every dog will have his day
every dog will have his day
Even the lowliest will eventually have their revenge. Erasmus traced this metaphor to a Macedonian proverb about the death of Euripides in 406 b.c. While on a visit to the king of Macedonia, the Greek playwright was attacked and killed by dogs that a rival had set upon him. John Heywood included it in his 1546 proverb collection (“As euery man saith, a dog hatha daie”), and George Bernard Shaw used it as well (“Every dog has his day, and I have had mine,” Caesar and Cleopatra, 1897).
See also: dog, every, have, will
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- teach a man to fish
- it takes a village
- village
- couldn't get elected dogcatcher
- elect
- best-laid plans go astray, the
- the best-laid plans
- the best-laid plans go astray
- the best-laid plans of mice and men
- For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse ...