never the twain shall meet
English
Etymology
From the poem The Ballad of East and West.[1]
Phrase
never the twain shall meet
- (idiomatic) Used to emphasize that two subjects are so different that they cannot coexist or agree with each other.
See also
- apples and oranges
References
- Rudyard Kipling (1889), “The Ballad of East and West”, in Departmental Ditties and Ballads and Barrack-Room Ballads, published 1919: “Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, […] ”