The World Is Your Oyster

Coined by Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor (c.1602). When Falstaff refuses to lend him money, the character Pistol replies, "Why then the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open," meaning he's prepared to use force, cracking the world open the way you'd prise open an oyster shell, to get what he's owed, likely a pearl of real value hidden inside. The line's original meaning is considerably more violent and mercenary than its modern use. Over the centuries the sword dropped out of the phrase entirely, and "the world is your oyster" softened into today's much gentler sense of boundless opportunity.