where does the saying sticks and stones come from
Sticks and Stones Alexander William Kinglake in his EOTHEN (written 1830, published in London, J. Ollivier, 1844) used "golden sticks and stones".
Star-crossed The phrase was coined in the prologue of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:
Many happy returns (greeting) Its earliest attributable use was by Lady Newdigate in a letter written in 1789 (and published in Newdigate-Newdegate Cheverels in 1898)[1]
When pigs fly The idiom is apparently derived from a centuries-old Scottish proverb, though some other references to pigs flying or pigs with wings are more famous. At least one appears in the works of Lewis Carroll: