Do not concern yourself with difficulties until they arise. Now also common as the metaphorical phrase to cross one's bridges when one comes to them.
Remember the proverb, ‘Do not cross the bridge till you come to it.’
[1850 Longfellow Journal 29 Apr. in Life (1886) II. 165]
One who anticipates difficulty is told not to cross the bridge till he gets to it.
[1895 S. O. Addy Household Tales xiv.]
Why cross our bridges before we come to them?
[1927 ‘J. Taine’ Quayle's Invention xv.]
We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn our bridges behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.
[1967 T. Stoppard Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead ii. 43]
Related to: trouble
Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.
