The term "
mice and men" stems in all likelihood from a
poem by Scottish poet
Robert Burns.
The poem, written in written in
1785 and dubbed "
To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough" contains the passage:
"But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an'men
Gang aft agley,
An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!"
For those of you with a less than celtic background, just read the passage through aloud without focusing too much on the individual words.