Feast or famine

This expression means from one extreme to the other. Feast and famine have long been juxtaposed throughout literature but using different words. The Bible does it famously in Genesis 41: 28-30, “Behold there come seven years of great plenty…and there shall arise after them seven years of famine.” Shakespeare in Sonnet 1 writes, “Making a famine where abundance lies.” Thomas Fuller in 1732 writes, “Is there no mean, but fast or feast?” Feast or famine appears to be a 20th century version of this old juxtaposition, yet no one has staked any claim for its original coining.