more than one way to skin a cat

proverb There are many methods one may employ in achieving one's ends. Don't worry, we'll get this start-up off the ground. Our talks with the investment group may have fallen through, but there's more than one way to skin a cat.

More than one method to reach the same end, as in We can get around that by renting instead of buying a computer-there's more than one way to skin a cat . This expression may be an American version of the earlier British more ways of killing a cat, but why the death of a cat should be alluded to at all is not clear. [Second half of 1800s]

There are many ways to accomplish the same end. American in origin, this term is similar to the British locution, “There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream,” which appeared in Charles Kingsley’s Westward Ho! (1855). Mark Twain used the current cliché, “She knew more than one way to skin a cat,” in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889). Several writers claim the expression has nothing to do with literally skinning an animal, but rather describes a child’s maneuver in getting into a sitting position on a tree branch. There is no evidence for this etymology.