360 If wishes were horses, beggars would ride

One Idiom One Day: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride

I was day dreaming about being the king of the world when my wife reminded me that if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

If we could achieve our aims simply by wishing for them, life would be very easy; to wish for things does not yield to anything; one should work in order to get things instead of wishing for them.

The first recognizable ancestor of the rhyme was recorded in William Camden's (1551–1623) Remaines of a Greater Worke, Concerning Britaine, printed in 1605, which contained the lines: "If wishes were thrushes beggars would eat birds".

The reference to horses was first in James Carmichael's Proverbs in Scots printed in 1628, which included the lines: "And wishes were horses, pure [poor] men wald ride".

The first mention of beggars is in John Ray's Collection of English Proverbs in 1670, in the form "If wishes would bide, beggars would ride".

The first versions with close to today's wording was in James Kelly's Scottish Proverbs, Collected and Arranged in 1721, with the wording "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride".

The rhyme above was probably the combination of two of many versions and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the 1840s.

The last line was sometimes used to stop children from questioning and get to work: "If if's and and's were pots and pans, there'd surely be dishes to do." 

The modern day version has come about from all of the above and perhaps a few more variations of the same phrase. They have all meant the same since the first use.

E.g., She tells me she wants to become Miss Universe all the time, but does nothing. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Le