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Half
Half is more than the whole.. (Pleou hmiou pantoz)This is what
Hesiod said to his brother Perseus, when he wished him to settle a
dispute without going to law. He meant “half of the estate without the
expense of law will be better than the whole after the lawyers have had
their pickings.” The remark, however, has a very wide signification.
Thus an embarras de richesse is far less profitable than a
sufficiency. A large estate to one who cannot manage it is
impoverishing. A man of small income will be poorer with a large house
and garden to keep up than if he lived in a smaller tenement. Increase
of wealth, if expenditure is more in proportion, tendeth to poverty.
Unhappy they to whom God has not revealed,
By a strong light which must their sense control,
That half a great estate's more than the whole.
Cowley: Essays in Verse and Prose, No. iv.
Half
My better half. (See Better.)
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894 More on Half from Infoplease:
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