An aphorism is nothing else but the slightest
Dictionary of English World Proverbs and Sayings
QUOTES AND APHORISMS ON PROVERBS
Proverbs are mental gems gathered in the diamond fields of the mind.
William R. Alger (1822-1905, American writer)
When an occasion arises, there is a proverb to suit it.
William R. Alger (1822-1905, American writer)
When an occasion arises, there is a proverb to suit it.
William R. Alger (1822-1905, American writer)
The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626, British philosopher, essayist, statesman)
He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.
George Berkeley (1685-1753, Irish-born British bishop, philosopher)
How many of us have been attracted to reason; first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism.
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873, British novelist, poet)
What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes? Take fifty of our current proverbial sayings -- they are so trite, so threadbare, that we can hardly bring our lips to utter them. None the less they embody the concentrated experience of the race and the man who orders his life according to their teaching cannot go far wrong.
Norman Douglas (1868-1952, British author)
I do not say a proverb is amiss when aptly and reasonably applied, but to be forever discharging them, right or wrong, hit or miss, renders conversation insipid and vulgar.
Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616, Spanish novelist, dramatist, poet)
There is often more spiritual force in a proverb than in whole philosophical systems.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881, Scottish philosopher, author)
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.
Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616, Spanish novelist, dramatist, poet)
I believe there's no proverb but what is true; they are all so many sentences and maxims drawn from experience, the universal mother of sciences.
Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616, Spanish novelist, dramatist, poet)
I believe there's no proverb but what is true; they are all so many sentences and maxims drawn from experience, the universal mother of sciences.
Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616, Spanish novelist, dramatist, poet)
Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long experience.
Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616, Spanish novelist, dramatist, poet)
No people require maxims so much as the American. The reason is obvious: the country is so vast, the people always going somewhere, from Oregon, Apple Valley to Boreal, New England, that we do not know whether to be temperate orchards or sterile climate.
Edward Dahlberg (1900-1977, American author, critic)
For proverbs are the pith, the proprieties, the proofs, the purities, the elegancies, as the commonest so the commendablest phrases of a language. To use them is a grace, to understand them a good.
John Florio (c.1553-1625, British author, translator)
Ho can I tell what I think till I see what I say?
Edward M. Forster (1879-1970, British novelist, essayist)
A proverb is much matter distilled into few words.
R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983, American inventor, designer, poet, philosopher)
A proverb is much matter distilled into few words.
R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983, American inventor, designer, poet, philosopher)
Constant popping off of proverbs will make thee a byword thyself.
Thomas Fuller (1608-1661, British clergyman, author)
He who cannot love must learn to flatter.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832, German poet, dramatist, novelist)
Don't you go believing in sayings, Picotee: they are all made by men, for their own advantages. Women who use public proverbs as a guide through events are those who have not ingenuity enough to make private ones as each event occurs.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928, British novelist, poet)
They are like the clue in the labyrinth, or the compass in the night.
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824, French moralist)
A proverb is not a proverb to you until life has illustrated it.
John Keats (1795-1821, British poet)
Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963, British author)
Only in the darkness can you see the stars.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968, American Civil Rights leader, Nobel Prize winner, 1964)
He who praises you for what you lack wishes to take from you what you have.
Don Juan Manuel
He who praises you for what you lack wishes to take from you what you have.
Don Juan Manuel
In the choice of a horse and a wife, a man must please himself, ignoring the opinion and advice of friends.
George John Whyte Melville
A proverb is good sense brought to a point.
John Morley (1838-1923, British journalist, biographer, statesman)
Proverbs can be applied to get what you want.
Zimbabwean Proverb
A mad dog bites anything except itself.
African Proverb (Sayings of African origin)
One volunteer is better than ten forced men.
African Proverb (Sayings of African origin)
One volunteer is better than ten forced men.
African Proverb (Sayings of African origin)
Proverbs are the lamp of speech.
Arabic Proverb
A hobbling cat is better than a fast horse when rats swarm the palace.
Chinese Proverb (Sayings of Chinese origin)
A one hundred yard high tower still has its foundation on the ground. TIBET
Chinese Proverb (Sayings of Chinese origin)
A person of high principles is one who can watch an entire chess game without making a comment.
Chinese Proverb (Sayings of Chinese origin)
One more good man on earth is better than an extra angel in heaven.
Chinese Proverb (Sayings of Chinese origin)
A fool and his money are soon parted.
English Proverb (Sayings of British origin)
A proverb is the child of experience.
English Proverb (Sayings of British origin)
He who can lick can bite.
French Proverb (Sayings of French origin)
He who fondles you more than usual has either deceived you or wants to so.
French Proverb (Sayings of French origin)
A country can be judged by the quality of its proverbs.
German Proverb (Sayings of German origin)
A crying child thrives.
Japanese Proverb (Sayings of Japanese origin)
A great river does not refuse any small streams.
Korean Proverb (Sayings of Korean origin)
A man's life is a circle from childhood to childhood, and thus it is in everything where the power moves.
Native American Proverb (Sayings of Native American origin)
A guest sticks a nail in the wall even if he stays but one night.
Polish Proverb (Sayings of Polish origin)
Proverbs are the people's wisdom.
Russian Proverb (Sayings of Russian origin)
A given excuse that was not asked for implies guilt. Clapping with only the right hand will not make a noise.
Singaporean Proverb
A good spectator also creates.
Swiss Proverb
An evil name -- a drawback at first -- sheds luster on old age.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946, Anglo-American essayist, aphorist)
A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.
John Russell
Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.
George Santayana (1863-1952, American philosopher, poet)
A short saying often contains much wisdom.
Sophocles (495-406 BC, Greek tragic poet)
Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can't find.
Marcus Annaeus Seneca (BC 3-65 AD, Roman philosopher, dramatist, statesman)
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616, British poet, playwright, actor)
The proverb is something musty.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616, British poet, playwright, actor)
Although none of the rules for becoming more alive is valid, it is healthy to keep on formulating them.
Susan Sontag (1933-, American essayist)
Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their mediocrity.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1895, Scottish essayist, poet, novelist)
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