# Phrase help II
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrase-help-ii/4255
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 27, 1999, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrase-help-ii/4255 "1999-10-27T18:53:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)
#### Post date: [October 27, 1999, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrase-help-ii/4255/1 "1999-10-27T18:53:00Z")
(with apologies to mouthbreather for stealing his/her excellent idea…)
Can any of the teeming millions provide the origin of the phrase “an embarrassment of riches”? Is it Biblical? Shakespearean? Where’d it come from?
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### Author:  [@Jonathon\_David\_Palinor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathon_David_Palinor)
#### Post date: [October 27, 1999, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrase-help-ii/4255/2 "1999-10-27T19:48:00Z")
I believe I may be able to help.
If I’m not mistaken, the phrase “An Embarrassment of Riches” originated in France, as the title of the play, _Embarras de Richesse_ written in 1753 by the Abbe d’Allainvail. In France, the term came to describe an excess of wealth - too much to have or to use conveniently; and it apparently passed from French to English with its meaning intact.
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Life is a tapestry.
Each new day brings with it the opportunity to sew by
word and deed within the heart of someone around us.
Let us choose our colors with care.