Brilliant Packaging?

"There is reason in the roasting of eggs", says the proverb (meaning that however odd an action may seem, there is a reason for it). What other notable views of eggs can be found?

Delia Smith (quoted in our new Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations 2/e) describes an egg as "a work of art, a masterpiece of design, construction, and brilliant packaging". But the egg in design terms is not always seen as a favourable image: nearly 60 years before, Lord Nuffield had exclaimed in horror on seeing the Morris Minor prototype, "It looks like a poached egg - we can't make that." It is said that "you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs." The American journalist Tom Brokaw, commenting on the American networks' inability to call the Florida election correctly during the presidential election of autumn 2000 used a vivid image to describe the pundits' embarrassment: "We don't just have egg on our face, we have omelette all over our suits."

A nest-egg evokes the idea of carefully cherished resources: in 1908 Lloyd George as Chancellor, considering the taxes he might impose, declared "I have no nest-eggs. I am looking for someone else's hen-roost to rob next year." Perhaps the perfect reply to that would have been Elton John's rueful self-assessment over 90 years later, "I'm not a nest-egg person". A golden egg (laid by the goose of the fable) sounds highly desirable, but in Sam Goldwyn's world was sometimes received with ingratitude: "That's the way with these directors, they're always biting the hand that lays the golden egg."

An egg as food can constitute temptation: C. S. Lewis commented that "He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it, hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart." It may on the other hand be seen as a staple of one's diet: "Go to work on an egg" advised the British Egg Marketing Board over 40 years ago. Thomas Moore, the 19th-century Irish musician and songwriter, writing about France, asked "who can help loving the land that has taught us Six hundred and eighty-five ways to dress eggs?" Somerset Maugham may well have had eggs in mind when he advised a friend how best to enjoy English food: "All you have to do is eat breakfast three times a day."

Perhaps we should alter the proverb to say, "There is reason in the quoting of eggs."

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