Could anyone tell me of an English idiom meaning more or less what I express in the subject?

The sense is that, when you have learned or inherited some kind of ability, you never lose every chip of it, but rather retain, if not all, some of the features provided thereby.

In case someone knows it; the idiom in Spanish is: "Quien tuvo, retuvo.", which rhymes, as well.

      WS.

I’m sorry Katy, that’s not what I seek.

I’ll give you a couple of situations:

Father hasn’t gone fishing for ages; mother doubts that the old man will bring something from the expedition… However, when he returns with a magnificent capture he states, beaming to his wife: "quien tuvo, retuvo".

I haven’t seen some woman for a long long time, not even a photo. I remember her as a gorgeous beauty, with lovely sea-blue eyes… But I think that aging is aging and she might have lost every attractive… I look again at her face and, despite wrinkles I couldn’t recall, she is pretty enough to make me drop my jaw like an idiot. My friend on the side comments in my ear, grinning: "quien tuvo, retuvo".

Same thing applies to bad habits or bad features… Notwithstanding I felt like writing something happy. ;D

     WS.

In the two examples you gave, I might use one or two  less elegant phrases: "I’ve still got it!" or "I haven’t lost it!" In my mind these phrases imply that someone might have thought that he or she had lost an ability and then proved him or herself (or any other disbelievers) wrong by going out and doing it.
If anyone else can supply a superior idiom, PLEASE! do. :D

How about;
As the boy, so the man:
The child is (the) father of the man: and
A leopard cannot change his spots?

Actually, Katy’s point isn’t far off the mark, based on your examples, WS.

We say "It’s like riding a bike; once you’ve learned it, you never forget."

-Tim

P.S.  Check your messages, WS… I sent you a link. ;D

I’d doubt that it fit the second example properly… The biking example is only valid for learned abilities that are usually not easily forgotten, such as sexual intercourse…xD

However, with the expression that gives title to this topic I want to mean also something like "beauty". You don’t "learn beauty"... so you can’t say it’s like riding a bike!

         WS.

WS, I think I understand what you’re saying, but…

In the example of the photo, for example, what is it that you ‘kept’?  If you’re smiling about the memories, or out of nostalgia in general, what is it that you ‘got’ that you are recalling and, therefore have retained?

Just trying to understand the underlying impulse.

-Tim
...who is not quite like an elephant...

The English equivalent would be:

  Once [something], always/ever/never [something].

You could say:

  Once learned, never forgotten.
  Once a fisherman, always a fisherman.
  Once a beauty, always a beauty.

I suppose it is like riding a bike.

- Once Garzoed, always Garzoed.

In the example of the photo, for example, what is it that you ‘kept’?  If you’re smiling about the memories, or out of nostalgia in general, what is it that you ‘got’ that you are recalling and, therefore have retained?

Erm, it’s not me who keeps anything but the woman, who has preserved her beauty… Actually I think you might have misunderstood the "got" in the subject… Therewith I meant possesion… She "had" beauty… she kept (some of) it.

I think Garzo, once more, has got to the point However, I reckon I won’t use it as often in English… Is it really employed conversationally?

       WS.

Yes, Garzo’s example is used conversationally enough to be considered.

I think the previous poster who submitted "I’ve still got it!" also hit the nail on the head.  The same could be said for a photograph of a lovely friend: "She’s still got it!"

Definitely conversational.

-Tim

To avoid a mere subjective interpretation, I included a supposed "friend’s criterion"... That is, I wanted to highlight that it must be more or less agreed that she keeps her attractive, so that anyone can put in: "Once a beauty, always a beauty". Of course you may add… "for me".

I supposed also I hadn’t seen her "not even in a photo", to point out that I had no idea how time had treated her and therefore could imagine whatever I wanted.

I like that "She’s still got it!": she’s still got the beauty, the touch, the something that made her pretty and can’t be shadowed by mere wrinkles or anything else.

Thanks for your opinions!

      WS.

In Delia Ephron’s "Teenage Romance, Or, How to Die of Embarrassment" a teen girl is waiting for a Big Date to show up. Nervously, she asks her mother whether her belt looks better tied in the center or off to the side, "demonstrating both ways". Mom replies that she looks lovely either way, prompting the daughter to have a tantrum. Why is she asking for beauty advice from someone who doesn’t even know which way a belt looks best?!!

You have to have it in the first place, not to lose it.  :)
gailr