The exact words
“What, courage, man! What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.”William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, Scene 1 (c. 1599), showing the older form of the proverb
✓ VerifiedFound in a primary source: the original book, speech transcript, letter or recording.
What people get wrong
Common reading
An ancient warning about curiosity.
An ancient warning about curiosity.
Closer to the original
For its first few centuries the proverb was about worry, not curiosity. “Care killed a cat” meant that anxiety can wear down even the toughest creature. The switch to “curiosity” happened in the 1800s.
For its first few centuries the proverb was about worry, not curiosity. “Care killed a cat” meant that anxiety can wear down even the toughest creature. The switch to “curiosity” happened in the 1800s.
Timeline
- 1598Ben Jonson's play Every Man in His Humour includes “care'll kill a cat.” Here “care” means worry or sorrow, and the saying meant that even a cat with nine lives could be worn down by worry.
- c. 1599Shakespeare uses the same older proverb in Much Ado About Nothing.
- 1868An Irish newspaper has “they say curiosity killed a cat once,” one of the first signs of the new wording.
- 1873James Allan Mair lists “curiosity killed the cat” as an Irish proverb in his Handbook of Proverbs.
- LaterThe playful comeback “but satisfaction brought it back” is added, so the cat survives after all.
Use it in a speech
In Shakespeare's day it was not curiosity but care, meaning worry, that killed the cat, and the change says a lot about which vice each age feared most.
~9 secondsto say aloud
Pausenone needed in writing
Best spotopening sentence
Questions people ask
What does curiosity killed the cat mean?
That being too inquisitive or nosy can lead to trouble.
What was the original version?
“Care killed a cat,” where care means worry. It appears in Ben Jonson (1598) and Shakespeare (around 1599).
What is the rest of the saying?
People often add “but satisfaction brought it back,” a later joke meaning that finding out the answer was worth the risk.
Cite this quote
This is a traditional proverb, so it counts as common knowledge and most style guides don't ask you to cite it. If you want to say where it comes from, give the earliest known use: recorded as “curiosity killed the cat” in James Allan Mair's Handbook of Proverbs (1873).