Thanks Sam. There can be great peace in leaving things in God’s hands, knowing they are much safer than ours.

Hi Mark. Good to hear from you.
A fair question. I guess I’d say they are well past a use by date when the number of cases when the saying is unhelpful significantly outweighs the number of times it is useful. So, eg, in a world where we need more, rather than less, curiosity, avoiding engagement with curiosity killed the cat isn’t helpful, and is often dismissive of valid concerns.

But with sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never harm you – fair enough, there are times when we need to be resilient enough to shrug it off with a “they are just words”. Having said that, I’m very wary of people who dismiss the damaging impact of their words with a “they were just words. I didn’t do anything.”

Wondering why Curiosity killed the cat; Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never harm you; and Cut your coat according to your cloth are “past their use by date” any more than other sayings used through history.