Proverbs

Proverbs (from Latin: proverbium) are simple and concrete sayings popularly known and repeated, which express truths, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim. If a proverb is distinguished by particularly good phrasing, it may be known as an aphorism. Proverbs are often borrowed from similar languages and cultures, and sometimes come down to the present through more than one language. Both the Bible (Book of Proverbs) and medieval Latin have played a considerable role in distributing proverbs across Europe, although almost every culture has examples of its own.

This page contains quotes about proverbs generally. For specific proverbs, look for the theme article to which the proverb relates.

Sourced

• His many years had reduced and polished him the way water smooths and polishes a stone or generations of men polish a proverb.
  • Jorge Luis Borges, "The Man on the Threshold", in The Aleph (1949); tr. Andrew Hurley, Collected Fictions (1998).

• Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long and wise experience.
  • Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605-1615).

• No hay refran que no sea verdadero.
  • There is no proverb which is not true.
  • Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605-1615).

• I can tell thee where that saying was born.
  • William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act I, scene 5, line 9.

• Scoundrel maxim.
  • James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence (1748), Canto 1, Stanza 50.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 638-39.

• I'll tell the names and sayings and the places of their birth,
  Of the seven great ancient sages so renowned on Grecian earth,
  The Lindian Cleobulus said, "The mean was still the best";
  The Spartan Chilo, "Know thyself," a heaven-born phrase confessed.
  Corinthian Periander taught "Our anger to command,"
  "Too much of nothing," Pittacus, from Mitylene's strand;
  Athenian Solon this advised, "Look to the end of life,"
  And Bias from Priene showed, "Bad men are the most rife";
  Milesian Thales urged that "None should e'er a surety be";
  Few were their words, but if you look, you'll much in little see.
  • From the Greek. Author unknown.

• Know thyself.—Solon.
  Consider the end.—Chilo.
  Know thy opportunity.—Pittacus.
  Most men are bad.—Bias.
  Nothing is impossible to industry.—Periander.
  Avoid excess.—Cleobulus.
  Suretyship is the precursor of ruin.—Thales.
  • Mottoes of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. Inscribed in later days in the Delphian Temple.

• The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs.
  • Francis Bacon.

• As Love and I late harbour'd in one inn,
  With proverbs thus each other entertain:
  "In love there is no lack," thus I begin;
  "Fair words make fools," replieth he again;
  "Who spares to speak doth spare to speed," quoth I;
  "As well," saith he, "too forward as too slow";
  "Fortune assists the boldest," I reply;
  "A hasty man," quoth he, "ne'er wanted woe";
  "Labour is light where love," quoth I," doth pay";
  Saith he, "Light burden's heavy, if far borne";
  Quoth I, "The main lost, cast the by away";
  "Y'have spun a fair thread," he replies in scorn.
  And having thus awhile each other thwarted
  Fools as we met, so fools again we parted.
  • Michael Drayton, Proverbs.

• Proverbs like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions.
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation.

• Much matter decocted into few words.
  • Thomas Fuller, Definition of a proverb. Worthies, Chapter II.

• A proverb and a byword among all people.
  • I Kings, IX. 7.

• Maxims are the condensed good sense of nations.
  • Sir James Mackintosh, quoted on the title page of Broom's Legal Maxims (1911).

• This formal fool, your man, speaks naught but proverbs,
  And speak men what they can to him he'll answer
  With some rhyme, rotten sentence, or old saying,
  Such spokes as ye ancient of ye parish use.
  • Henry Porter, The Proverb Monger, from Two Angry Women of Abindon.

• A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.
  • Lord John Russell, in Notes to Roger's Italy (1848). Claimed by him as his original definition of a proverb.

• Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked.
  • I Samuel, XXIV. 13. Said to be the oldest proverb on record.

• Les maximes des hommes décèlent leur cœur.
  • The maxims of men reveal their characters.
  • Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Réflexions, CVII.