What Does “you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” mean?
Definition:
The proverb you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar means that it is much easier to get what you want by being polite rather than by being rude and insolent.
Alternative forms
– Honey catches more flies than vinegar
– You attract more flies with honey than vinegar
Origin of the phrase
‘Flies‘ represent your goals – anything you want to achieve. ‘Honey’ stands for agreeable things that you do to achieve your goals. ‘Vinegar’, however, is any disagreeable thing or method you use to get what you want. So, in your attempts to catch flies (i.e., achieving what you want/your goals), you had better use nice methods (i.e., honey) than disagreeable ones (i.e., vinegar.) Put differently, people become more successful in life by being nicer rather than being hurtful, mean, or insolent.
The proverb was first used in 1666 in A common place of Italian proverbs and proverbial phrases, published by Giovanni Torriano:
Il mele catta più mosche, che non fà l’aceto.. (Italian)
Honey gets more flyes to it, than doth fo.. (Translation)
The phrase was also used by Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanack, published in 1744:
Tart Words make no Friends: spoonful of honey will catch more flies than Gallon of Vinegar.
Example(s)
Just be polite when you ask for something. You know, you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar
