Folk Saying
The "Florian Principle" (known in German language areas as "Sankt-Florians-Prinzip") is named after a somewhat ironic "prayer" to Saint Florian: "O heiliger Sankt Florian, verschon' mein Haus, zünd' and're an", translating to "O holy Saint Florian, spare my house, kindle others". This saying is used in German much like the English "not in my back yard", when the speaker wants to point out that some person tries to get out of an unpleasant situation by an action that will put others in that very same situation. The name Florian is considered a stereotypical name for a fireman in the German speaking world. In some cases call for a fireman will actually be spoken as calls for Florian.
Read more about this topic: Saint Florian
Famous quotes containing the word folk:
“Some folk want their luck buttered.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He’s the chap who makes it possible for civilised folk to despise war.”
—Allan Massie (b. 1938)