Never a barrel the better herring. [ Proverb ]

You cannot know wine by the barrel. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

A little barrel can give but a little meal. [ Proverb ]

To talk in a tête-à-tête of the mysteries of love, is to play with fire on a barrel of gunpowder. [ Levis ]

Since Cupid is represented with a torch in his hand, why did they place virtue on a barrel of gunpowder? [ Levis ]

The proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly exploded. [ W. G. Simms ]

Today it is all of sixty years since I began to smoke the limit. I have never bought cigars with life-belts around them. I early found that those were too expensive for me: I have always bought cheap cigars - reasonably cheap, at any rate. Sixty years ago they cost me four dollars a barrel, but my taste has improved, latterly, and I pay seven, now. Six or seven. Seven, I think. Yes; it's seven. But that includes the barrel. I often have smoking-parties at my house; but the people that come have always just taken the pledge. I wonder why that is? [ Mark Twain, Seventieth Birthday speech ]