Too Much Of A Good Thing

American Actress and iconic vamp, Mae West (1892-1980) was quoted as saying, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”  

However, as original as it may have sounded when Mae West said those words, she was merely paraphrasing from Shakespeare’s play of 1599, “As You Like It” when Rosalind says to Orlando: 

“Why then, can one desire too much of a good thing?”

But the spirit of the phrase reaches far back again to the Bible where,  in I Cor 12:31, the following can be found:

“But earnestly desire the greater gifts.  And I show you a still more excellent way.”