- every man has his price
1734 W. WYNDHAM in Bee VIII. 97 ‘It is an old Maxim, that every Man has his Price,’ if you can but come up to it.
1798 W. COXE Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole I. lxiv. The political axiom generally attributed to him [Walpole]..was perverted by leaving out the word those... He ascribed to the interested views of themselves..the declaration of pretended patriots, of whom he said, ‘All those men have their price.’
1845 G. P. R. JAMES Smuggler I. x. ‘You can do nothing with Mowle. He never took a penny in his life.’ ‘Oh, every man has his price.’
1949 N. MAILER Naked & Dead II. xi. It was the sort of deal his father might have pulled. ‘Every man has his price.’
2000 ‘C. AIRD’ Little Knell xiv. 162 ‘Howard Air’s accountants, sir, assure us that all their clients are men and women of unimpeachable integrity.’ ‘No such thing,’ came back Leeyes smartly. ‘Everyone’s got their price.’
Proverbs new dictionary.
