Cf. [Claudian In Nuptias Honorii‥Fescennina iv. 10] Armat spina rosas, mella tegunt apes, a thorn arms roses, bees conceal their honey.
There is no rose‥in garden, but there be sum thorne.
[1430-40 Lydgate Bochas Prol. ix]
The sweetest Rose hath his prickel.
[1579 Lyly Euphues i. 184]
But no good without paines; no Roses without prickles.
[1603 J. Florio tr. Montaigne's Essays III. iii. 68]
No rose without a thorn.
[1670 J. Ray English Proverbs 138]
Queer the number of pins they always have. No roses without thorns.
[1922 Joyce Ulysses]
‘But everything depends on the baby. What a bore.’ ‘No rose without a thorn, eh?’
[1965 H. Acton Old Lamps 218]
Related to: good and evil
Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.
The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. Copyright © 1982, 1992, 1998, 2003, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
