Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Cliché: you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink

Meaning: you can help someone find something but you can’t make him take advantage of it. Use examples.
Rewrite 1: you can take a horse to the hay, but you can’t make him eat it
Rewrite 2: you can lead a cat to the
litter box, but you can’t make her use it
Rewrite 3: even a dog on a
leash doesn’t always want to walk
Rewrite 4: you can make some people leaders but they still want to follow

Comment: Rewriting this cliché can open a slew of different possibilities, and they don’t all have to follow the logical course. Rewrites 3 and 4 are good examples.

More reading about clichés
What I found when I
googled “clichés”:
Business phrases, jargon and business clichés, “Said what is an online database of quotes and quotations, covering politics, celebrities, models, famous quotations and topical articles, competitions.”

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