Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Devil Sick would be a Monk (The).

 Devil rides on a Fiddlestick (The).Devil to Pay and no Pitch Hot (The). 
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E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Devil Sick would be a Monk (The).
 
       
“Dœmon languebat, monachus bonus esse volebat;
Sed cum convaluit, manet ut ante fuit.”
“When the Devil was sick, the devil a monk would be;
When the Devil got well, the devil a monk was he.”
Said of those persons who in times of sickness or danger make pious resolutions, but forget them when danger is past and health recovered.   1
 


 Devil rides on a Fiddlestick (The).Devil to Pay and no Pitch Hot (The). 

 
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