Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is better

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Brag is a good dog, but Holdfast is better tenacity and quietness of manner are preferable to ostentation. Recorded from the early 18th century; an earlier related saying of the late 16th century is, ‘Brag is a good dog, while he will hold out: but at last he may chance to meet his match.’ Shakespeare in Henry V (1599) has, ‘And Holdfast is the only dog, my duck.’