Proverbs
A word to the wise
From the earliest times until today, these short and pithy sentences have
offered advice or pointed a moral. Sometimes, as with Absence makes the heart
grow fonder, they express a general truth in an abstract statement. At other
times, everyday experience is used to make the point: Don't put all your
eggs in one basket warns strongly of the possible outcome. There are also
groups of proverbs relating to health (After dinner rest a while, after supper
walk a mile), the weather (Red sky at night, shepherd's delight; red
sky in the morning, shepherd's warning), and the seasons (April showers
bring forth May flowers).
Quotations, proverbs ... what's the difference?
A quotation is thought of as something originally relating to a specific event
and person: said by a particular person at a particular time. A proverb is universal,
reflecting a general truth: it could be expressed by a number of people at different
periods. There is some overlap - proverbs such as Hope springs eternal
and Fools rush in where angels fear to tread originated as English quotations
- but we think of them as proverbs because they seem to express a general truth,
and because the origins of the quotation are no longer popularly remembered.
Where do they come from?
Every country and language has its own stock of proverbs, and proverbs in
our language today reflect every age and time. Art is long and life is short
is found originally as a saying of the Greek physician Hippocrates; The apple
never falls far from the tree, which means that family characteristics will
always assert themselves, is apparently of eastern origin. Sometimes the proverb
as we have it today looks back to an earlier period; the idea that Bad money
drives out good, recorded from the early 20th century, looks back to the
anxieties of the 16th-century financier Sir Thomas Gresham about the debasement
of the coinage. The Bible has always been a major source (The leopard does
not change his spots!), but changes in the world around us create new proverbs
to reflect current experience. The computing world has given us two of the most
durable: Garbage in, garbage out and What you see is what you get.
Do they always mean the same?
Misunderstandings can arise over the years! Feed a cold and starve a fever
was probably intended to represent two separate pieces of advice, but it has
been interpreted to mean that if someone with a cold eats too much they are
likely to develop a fever, which will have to be starved. When we warn against
risking loss or failure because of unwillingness to spend a trivial amount with
the words Do not spoil the ship for a ha'porth of tar, we may not realize
that the proverb originally ran, Do not spoil the sheep.... The literal
sense was against refusal to sanction expenditure on the small amount (or halfpennyworth)
of tar needed to protect sores or wounds on sheep from flies.
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