PARADOX PROVERBS.
Reading edition
These Pampered Children of Wisdom and Experience Find It So Difficult to Agree That if They Had Teeth and Claws They Might Fight It Out in the Manner of the Kilkenny Cats.
A proverb is defined in one of the more popular dictionaries of our language as "a brief, pithy saying, condensing in witty or striking form the wisdom of experience."
But experiences vary and often lead to different results, so that of proverbs it may be said that "what is one man's meat is another man's poison." It is as futile for a man to live his life in accordance with proverbs as it is for twenty cooks to collaborate in the making of a broth that will please the palates of all.
The truth is, proverbs are just as likely to disagree as are physicians. Here are a few that have agreed to disagree:
A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.
A formal fool speaks naught but proverbs.
Education forms the man.
By education most have been misled.
Everything comes to him who waits.
He who would find must seek.
Better a patch than a hole.
A true gentleman would rather have his clothes torn than mended.
Patience surpasses learning.
Patience is the virtue of asses.
No wickedness has any ground of reason.
Success makes some crimes honorable.
He who hunts two hares at once will catch neither.
It is always good to have two irons in the fire.
Never spur a willing horse.
A good horse and a bad horse both need the spur.
The middle path is the safe path.
The neutral is soused from above, and singed from below.
Many hands make light work.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
The seed you sow, another reaps.
Be sure you are right, then go ahead.
Nothing venture, nothing have.
It is fortune, not wisdom, that rules man's life.
Wisdom is the conqueror of fortune.
The wise man has a short tongue.
Silence is the virtue of those who are not wise.
The face is the index of the mind.
A fair skin often covers a crooked mind.
Trust not to appearances.
A fair exterior is a silent recommendation.
Good fortune ever fights on the side of the prudent.
Fortune helps the bold.
A rolling stone gathers no moss.
Push on, keep moving.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
A bad beginning makes a good ending.
A good beginning makes a good ending.
Birds of a feather flock together.
Two birds of prey do not keep each other company.
All truths are not to be told.
Tell the truth and shame the devil.
No jealousy, no love.
In jealousy there is more self-love than love.
The end justifies the means.
Never do evil that good may come of it.
A sin confessed is half-forgiven.
A sin concealed is half-pardoned.