Proverb Lore: Many sayings, wise or otherwise, on many subjects, gleaned from many sourcesHulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward)
History
Proverb Lore: Many sayings, wise or otherwise, on many subjects, gleaned from many sources
Hulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward)
Proverbs -- History and criticism
Another valuable aid to remembrance is found in rhyme, and many of our
most widely current proverbs owe, no doubt, some at least of their
popular acceptance to the catching jingle that fixes them on the ear.
The following are examples:--"Who goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing,"
"Store is no sore," "The counsels that are given in wine will do no good
to thee or thine," "Little strokes fell great oaks," "One drop of ink
may make a million think." Very familiar examples are these--"Little
pot, soon hot," "A stitch in time saves nine," "Many a little makes a
mickle," "No gains without pains," and "Man proposes, God disposes." How
true to life is it in a censorious world that "When I did well I heard
it never, when I did ill I heard it ever." There is a touch of sarcasm
in the following:--"As a man is friended so the law is ended," and the
old saying, "In vino veritas," reappears in this, "What soberness
conceals, drunkenness reveals." The equally well-known "Bis dat qui cito
dat" is seen in the adage, "He giveth twice who gives in a trice," "He
that by the plough would thrive, himself must either hold or drive," for
"Well begun is half done," and "By hawk and by hound small profit is
found." There are "No gains without pains," and it is "Better small fish
than empty dish," "He that leaves certainty and sticks to chance, when
fools pipe he may dance." He will find it true enough that "Great
spenders are bad lenders," and so it is a case of "Help, hands, for I
have no lands," and "Be the day never so long, at last it cometh to
evensong." "Easy fool is knave's tool," but "He that mischief hatcheth
mischief catcheth." "He has wit at will that with an angry heart can
hold him still," but far better yet, "A little house well filled, a
little land well tilled, a little wife well willed," for "A good wife
and health is a man's best wealth."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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