No merchant gets always. [ Proverb ]
A merchant that gains not, loseth. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
For gold the merchant ploughs the main.
The farmer ploughs the manor. [ Burns ]
If a man but knew what would be dear,
He need be a merchant but only one year. [ Proverb ]
A good merchant may meet with a misfortune. [ Proverb ]
A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong. [ Ecclus ]
He that loseth is a merchant as well as he that gains. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]
A merchant's happiness hangs upon chance, winds and waves. [ Proverb ]
He promises like a merchant man, and pays like a man-of-war. [ Proverb ]
He hazards much who depends for his learning on experience. An unhappy master, he that is only made wise by many shipwrecks; a miserable merchant, that is neither rich nor wise till he has been bankrupt. By experience we find out a short way by a long wandering. [ Roger Ascham ]
Patron or Customer? These nouns are generally used indiscriminately. A patron is a virtual benefactor; one who countenances, aids, or supports. A customer is a purchaser, or buyer, who expects in return for his money full value received. Hence it is erroneous for a merchant to say, He is a patron of mine,
when he means simply a customer. [ Pure English, Hackett And Girvin, 1884 ]