where did the phrase roll over in his grave come from
Turn in one's grave The earliest known example is a 4 November 1801 House of Commons speech by a Mr. Windham warning Britain against giving too much power to France during the preliminaries to peace following the revolutionary wars: "Thus have we done a thing altogether unknown in the history of this country ; a thing which would have scared all former politicians ; a thing, which, if our old Whig politicians were now to hear, they would turn in their graves."[5] One of the earliest uses is found in William Thackeray's 1849 work The History of Pendennis, where Mrs. Wapshot, upset by a man's advances on the widow of Mr. Pendennis whom the widow had "never liked," says it's "enough to make poor Mr. Pendennis turn in his grave."[6] Another early use of the phrase is in historian James Bryce's 1888 work The American Commonwealth in which he said: "Jefferson might turn in his grave if he knew."[7] It has also been said that circa 1906, when George Bernard Shaw was invited to Henry Irving's funeral, he said "If I were at Westminster, Henry Irving would turn in his grave, just as Shakespeare would turn in his grave were Henry Irving at Stratford," implying that Irving's productions of Shakespeare would have made the actor as offensive to Shakespeare as Shaw had made himself offensive to Irving with the numerous critical reviews he had written of Irving's work.[8] In 1902, the work Current Literature stated that "William Morris might well turn in his grave if he could see the uses to which his fine dreams of beautiful books have been put."[9] Where the sorry state of people's spelling/punctuation/literary skills come under criticism, the act is generally said to make "Shakespeare turn in his grave," as he is associated with high literary standards. One example of this is when a national newspaper opined that writing the word "cough" with an "F" would cause such a thing to occur.[10]
This too shall pass "This too shall pass" (Persian: Persian: این نیز بگذرد‎‎, īn nīz bogzarad) is originally a Persian adage reflecting on the evanescence, or ephemerality, of the human condition. The phrase seems to have originated in the writings of the medieval Persian Sufi poets, and is often attached to a fable of a great king who is humbled by the simple words. The general sentiment is often expressed in wisdom literature throughout history and across cultures. It also appears in a collection of tales by the English poet Edward Fitzgerald in the early 19th century. It was also notably employed in a speech by Abraham Lincoln before he became the sixteenth President of the United States. Fitzgerald's usage of the phrase is in the context of a retelling of a Persian fable. Some versions of the fable, beginning with that of Attar of Nishapur, add the detail that the phrase is inscribed on a ring, which has the ability to make the happy man sad and the sad man happy.