Four things come not back ...

I was talking to a neighbour, Vic, who is over 80, yesterday.  Vic is fitter than me, which isn't so difficult nowadays, and still works in his garden and repairs his small garden shed when the felt is blown off the roof.

We got to talking about Christmas and had we enjoyed it and I told him that although Christmas Day was a special day for me I also regarded all the other days as special too. I didn't want any particular day to seem any more special than the others. 

Then Vic referred to what he called a Shakespearean quote : "Four things come not back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life and the neglected opportunity."

He couldn't remember what play it was from but he'd learnt it as a boy and had never forgotten it. 

I had never heard it before.

We savoured it a bit and then went our separate ways ... but I was pleased that I had learnt something new and set my mind to look it up.

And when I looked it up this morning I discovered that it isn't Shakespearean at all but an Arabian proverb. I do think, in translation, they might have come up with something that sounds a little more in keeping with the wording when it comes to 'the neglected opportunity'.