The alt.usage.english FAQ   

• "more honoured in the breach than the observance"

  (Phrase Origins)
  
  

  
     From _Hamlet_, Act 1, Scene 4.  Shakespeare meant "BETTER broken
  than observed", not "more often broken than observed".

  
  
  Source: [Mark Israel, 'Phrase Origins: "more honoured in the breach than the observance"', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 5103), (29 Sept 1997)]
  
  
  
  

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