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When facing a great crisis most will turn and run.
Rats have been said to be the first to sense an impending disaster, such as a sinking ship or a gas leak in a mine - so if rats are seen leaving it's a good idea to follow!
Early variants of this expression go back all the way to Pliny The Elder's Natural History (77 AD): 'When a building is about to fall down, all the mice desert it'.
It also appears in a form closer to the modern usage in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act I, Scene II (1610):
Prospero: In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it.
More expressions and their source
Challenge yourself with BookBrowse Wordplays
Girl Falling
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The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.
Jane and Dan at the End of the World
by Colleen Oakley
Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.
The Antidote
by Karen Russell
A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.
The Dream Hotel
by Laila Lalami
A Read with Jenna pick. A riveting novel about one woman's fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.
Raising Hare
by Chloe Dalton
A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, and loss through one woman's friendship with a wild hare.
There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written. That is all.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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