What is the origin of the saying, " to move hell or high waters?"?
445598
The saying does go, "come hell or high waters", and my dad once told me it referred to people living in the desert.  They would build towns that were meant to stay right where they were come hell (the intense summer heat and occasional fires) or high waters (floods).
1018716
DancingDudeSean tells you not to listen to the garbage... but in fact, most of these answers are based in fact. And for yet another twist on the historicity...\n\nIt was believed in medieval times that demons resided in water. Refer to the Biblical text where Jesus cast out demons and they immediately inhabited some pigs and threw themselves in some water below a cliff.\nSo when one would sneeze and 'release" a demon - it was indeed thought that they were blessed by God for such a redemption.\n\nDo I believe that? heck no (not the water part anyway) - but cant change history.
80029
1382, from O.Fr. fugitif, from L. fugitivus "fleeing" (but commonly used as a noun meaning "runaway"), from stem of fugere "run away, flee," from PIE base *bheug- "to flee" (cf. Gk. pheugein "to flee," Lith. bugstu "be frightened"). Replaced O.E. flyma. From 17c.-19c. Eng. had the useful adj. fugacious "likely to flee."
21646
BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE -- From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" (1996): "Between a rock and a hard place. Forced to choose between two unpleasant options. The expression originated in the early twentieth century in the United States. It usually follows 'to be caught'." \n\nThe "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Fact on File, New York, 1997) says "the expression was probably born in Arizona during a financial panic early in this century."
469691
It wasn't Lincoln who coined this phrase. The first person to use the pharse was Aesop in his tale "The Four Oxen and the Lion" In this story the oxen would defend themselves against attacks from the lion by standing tail to tail in a circle so that the lion would meet only horns when attacking them. Eventually, the oxen got into a fight and separated. This left the lion a chance to atttack them all and eat them. The moral of the story was "united We stand, divided we fall" \n\nYes, abe Lincoln did use it later on and that perhaps is how it became popluar in America. Patrick henry also used this phrase in his last speech before his death in 1799. He was upset over the possible division of Virginia's house of Representatives.
836667
Here goes- take your pick:\n\n1.It comes from mythology. Witches, who often took the form of their familiars - cats, are supposed to have ridden the wind. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms and sailors associated them with rain. Well, some evidence would be nice. There doesn't appear to be any to support this notion.\n\n\n2.Cats and dogs were supposed to be washed from roofs during heavy weather. This is a widely repeated tale. It got a lease of life with the message "Life in the 1500s", which began circulating on the Internet in 1999. Here's the relevant part of that:\n\nI'll describe their houses a little. You've heard of thatch roofs, well that's all they were. Thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. They were the only place for the little animals to get warm. So all the pets; dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs, all lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery so sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Thus the saying, "it's raining cats and dogs."\n\nThis is nonsense of course. It hardly needs debunking, but, lest there be any doubt... \n\nDogs lived in thatched roofs? No, of course they didn't. Even accepting that mad idea, for them to have slipped off when it rained they would have needed to be on the outside - hardly the place an animal would head for to shelter from bad weather.\n\n\n3.The phrase is supposed to have originated in England in the 17th century when city streets were filthy and heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals. \n\nThe idea that seeing dead cats and dogs floating by in storms would cause people to coin this phrase is just about believable. People may not have actually thought the animals had come from the sky, but might have made up the phrase to suit the occasion. \n\n\n4.Another suggestion is that it comes from a version of the French word, catadoupe, meaning waterfall. \n\nWell, again. No evidence. If the phrase were 'raining cats' or if there also existed a French word, dogadoupe we might be going somewhere with this one. As there isn't let's pass this by.
922404
Also translated as "Truly, whoever is able to make you absurd is able to make you unjust," the quote comes from Voltaire's "Questions sur les miracles" (1765).  \n\nIn the original French, the quote is: "Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste."
737333
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? \nAnd what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered? \nOnly when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. \nAnd when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. \nAnd when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.
914419
The very fact that a place called Hell exists, and is described as an eternal lake of fire, pretty much throws any notion of an all-loving god out the window.\nAnd that notion hits every branch of the stupid tree on the way down.\n\nAnd when it reaches the bottom, it falls into a pool.\nAnd that pool is covered in oil.\nAnd the oil suddenly lights on fire.
218442
Who's the quote from?\n\nWe are to fish for men/women with the truth of God's Word. When you fish you use bait or a lure. You dangle the bait enticingly and don't beat them over the head with it.\n\nGod and His Word do the cleaning.
1026077
This goes back to the time when Greek mythology was in its halcyon days. The phrase was originally caught between Scylla and Charybdis, these can be found in the strait of Messina between Italy and the island of Sicily on one side of the strait is a dangerous rocky shoal and on the other is a whirlpool. In mythology they were represented as two female monsters whose appearance spelled doom for whoever saw them. To be between them was an awful fate, over time it became between a rock and a hard place which is much more easily understood than the other.
751202
Supposedly, it comes from the Dylan Thomas poem, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" which is about fighting death and not just accepting it.  \n\nDo not go gentle into that good night, \nOld age should burn and rave at close of day; \nRage, rage against the dying of the light. \nThough wise men at their end know dark is right, \nBecause their words had forked no lightning they \nDo not go gentle into that good night. \nGood men, the last wave by, crying how bright \nTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, \nRage, rage against the dying of the light. \nWild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, \nAnd learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, \nDo not go gentle into that good night. \nGrave men, near death, who see with blinding sight \nBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, \nRage, rage against the dying of the light. \nAnd you, my father, there on the sad height, \nCurse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. \nDo not go gentle into that good night. \nRage, rage against the dying of the light.
973411
Sounds like it is from "War of the Worlds". Maybe the following:\n\n"Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."
243672
It is the state motto of New Hampshire, I believe.\n\nThe phrase comes from a toast written by General John Stark on July 31, 1809. Poor health forced Stark, New Hampshire's most famous soldier of the American Revolutionary War, to decline an invitation to an anniversary reunion of the Battle of Bennington and to send his toast by letter:\n\n"Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."\n\nThe motto was enacted at the same time as the state emblem, on which the motto appears.
472840
This is an interesting phrase in that, although there's no definitive origin, there are several speculative derivations.\n\nThe first thing to say is that the phrase seems to be unrelated to the well-known antipathy between dogs and cats, which is made word in the phrase "fight like cat and dog". In fact "raining cats and dogs" doesn't make a great deal of literal sense and the explanations below that attempt to link the phrase to felines, canines and weather seem rather feeble. \n\nHere goes though - take your choice.\n\nIt comes from mythology. Witches, who often took the form of their familiars - cats, are supposed to have ridden the wind. Dogs and wolves were attendants to Odin, the god of storms and sailors associated them with rain. Well, some evidence would be nice. There doesn't appear to be any to support this notion.\n\n\nCats and dogs were supposed to be washed from roofs during heavy weather. This is a widely repeated tale. It got a lease of life with the message "Life in the 1500s", which began circulating on the Internet in 1999. Here's the relevant part of that:\n\nI'll describe their houses a little. You've heard of thatch roofs, well that's all they were. Thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. They were the only place for the little animals to get warm. So all the pets; dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs, all lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery so sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Thus the saying, "it's raining cats and dogs."\n\nThis is nonsense of course. It hardly needs debunking, but, least there be any doubt... \n\nDogs lived in thatched roofs? No, of course they didn't. Even accepting that mad idea, for them to have slipped off when it rained they would have needed to be on the outside - hardly the intuitive place for an animal to shelter from bad weather.\n\n\nThe phrase is supposed to have originated in England in the 17th century when city streets were filthy and heavy rain would occasionally carry along dead animals. \n\nThe idea that seeing a dead cats and dogs floating by in storms would cause people to coin this phrase is far fetched, but just about believable.\n\n\nAnother suggestion is that it comes from a version of the French word, catadoupe, meaning waterfall. \n\nWell, again. No evidence. If the phrase were 'raining cats' or if there also existed a French word, dogadoupe we might be going somewhere with this one. As there isn't lets pass this by. \nReturning to facts rather than idle speculation, we do know that the phrase was in use in a modified form in 1653, when Richard Brome's The City Wit, has the line:\n\n"It shall raine .. Dogs and Polecats".\n\nPolecats aren't cats as such but the jump between them in linguistic rather than veterinary terms isn't large. \n\nIn a form more like the current version it appears in Jonathan Swift’s 'A Complete Collection of Polite and Ingenious Conversation' in 1738: \n\n"I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs".\n\nMore likely than any of the versions given above is that this is just a nice descriptive turn of phrase, which doesn't relate to any particular event or practise. \n\nThere's a similar phrase originating from the north of England - "it's raining stair-rods". No one has gone to the effort of speculating that this is from mythic reports of stairs being carried into the air in storms and falling on gullible peasants. Its just a rather good vivid phrase giving a graphic impression of heavy rain.\n\nAnother similar phrase is "it’s raining like pitchforks", the first known reference of which is D. Humphreys' Yankey in England, 1815:\n\n"I'll be even with you, if it rains pitchforks - tines downwards."
534929
This expression, meaning "be very careful to behave correctly",\nhas been in use from the 17th century on.  Theories include:  an\nadmonishment to children learning to write; an admonishment to\ntypesetters (who had to look at the letters reversed); an\nadmonishment to seamen not to soil their navy pea-jackets with\ntheir tarred "queues" (pigtails); "mind your pints and quarts";\n"mind your prices and quality"; "mind your pieds and queues"\n(either feet and pigtails, or two dancing figures that had to be\naccurately performed); the substitution of /p/ for "qu" /kw/ in the\nspeech of uneducated ancient Romans; or the confusion by students\nlearning both Latin and Ancient Greek of such cognates as _pente_\nand _quintus_.  And yes, we've heard the joke about the instruction\nto new sextons:  "Mind your keys and pews."
721082
This verse is part of God's talking to Job about His ability and Job's inability. In verses 8-11, God states He and He alone has the power to limit the seas movements. They can go no farther than he allows and waves can get no higher than He wants them to. Sounds like a statement to mankind also...lol