1898, Julian Hawthorne, chapter 1, in The History of the United States:
The hour had struck; and with it, as always, appeared the man. So it has ever been in the history of the world; though we, with characteristic vanity, uniformly put the cart before the horse, and declare that it is the man that brings the hour.
1957 December 2, “Corruption of the Mind”, in TIME[1], archived from the original on 21 November 2007:
To attempt to remove the armaments before removing these substantive conflicts of interest is to put the cart before the horse.
1979 December 8, Dick Bowring, quoting Elizabeth Hjeltness, “HATS Helps Gay Alcoholics”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 20, page 11:
Saying, as some people do, "If I could get these other problems straightened out, then the drinking would take care of itself" is putting the cart before the horse. You can't deal with emotions like love and hate and rage when you're numbing yourself with chemicals.
2005 July 27, David D. Kirkpatrick, “Timing of Hearings and Vote Stalls Confirmation Talks”, in The New York Times[2], archived from the original on 25 January 2021, retrieved 6 Nov. 2008:
Mr. Schumer said that the idea of agreeing to a date for a vote before the committee had held hearings was "to put the cart before horse."
