A closed mouth catches no flies.

A closed mouth catches no flies.

A closed mouth catches no flies.

A cat has nine lives. 

The cat is a domesticated animal and is a very sacred animal in ancient times. The Egyptian civilization considered cat as a holy animal and so it was worshipped. The maxim says that even after going into a very bad situation some people recover without much damage. 


The ancient saying comes from the fact that the cat is a very agile animal and can jump from very high places without getting hurt. The cat when it jumps from very high places can adjust the position of its body in such a way that it does not get hurt during its jump. This is a very distinctive feature of the cat and no other domesticated is capable of this. In ancient times people did not know that the cat can adjust its posture and jump safely. So they assumed that the cat has many lives and so when its jumps from a high position it loses one of its lives. This was referred to as a cat having nine lives in ancient times. This saying is generally used to refer to the fact that somebody escapes even after doing something wrong without being caught or punished or somebody goes to a near death situation and then survives without much bodily damage.