Don't judge a book by its cover

There is not a clear origin for this common phrase but there are a few ideas.

One source says the expression goes back to at least the mid-19th century, as seen in the newspaper Piqua Democrat, June 1867:

"Don't judge a book by its cover, see a man by his cloth, as there is often a good deal of solid worth

and superior skill underneath a [???] jacket and yaller pants."

Other ideas are found here.

The expression is meant to convey that often what someone or something looks like isn't representative of the truth of who they are or what it is. Like Susan Boyle, below. Simon dismissed her because of how she looks...until she opened her mouth.

Comments

Call it a Day

The literal use of this phrase hails from 1838 when the phrase originally was "call it half a day" to mean leaving work early. (source) The modern use of the phrase is to indicate ending something due to false sense of accomplishment.

More bang for your buck

This phrase was used a lot in 1953 but an earlier citation puts it at 1940 in a Metals and Plastics Publications advertisement. Read about it here . The phrase means you get more for your money.

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

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