Proverbs Quotes
More Proverbs Quotes
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we quote. We quote not only books and proverbs, but arts, sciences, religion, customs, and laws; nay, we quote temples and houses, tables and chairs by imitation.
ralph waldo emerson— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims (1876), Quotation and Originality.
Among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten.
Chinua originally Albert Chinualumogo Achebe— 1958 Things Fall Apart, ch.1. The title is taken fromYeats's poem 'The Second Coming'.
... I write for thisRemembering and considering what the pith is,That by remembrance of these proverbs may grow.In this tale, erst talked with a friend, I showAs many of them as we could fitly findFalling to purpose, that might fall in mind.
john heywood— Preface
Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.
william temple— Ancient and Modern Learning (1690).
Your fame shall (spite of proverbs) make it plain To write in water 's not to write in vain.
— Anon. in preface to Sir William Sanderson, Art of Painting in Water Colours (1658).
And however our Dennises take offence, A double meaning shows double sense; And if proverbs tell truth , A double tooth Is wisdom's adopted dwelling.
thomas hood— Thomas Hood, Miss Kilmansegg.
All the world over, proverbs run in pairs, and pull both ways: for the most part one neutralizes, by contradiction, the other.
— Burton, Richard Francis (1863). Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains: an exploration, Volym 1. Tinsley Brothers. p. 309.
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.
Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.
— Sir William Temple, Ancient and Modern Learning.
It is the characteristic way of the wise to speak indirectly, to talk in figures, proverbs, and puzzles. All the sages of pre-modern cultures seem to share a belief in the ineffectiveness of open statements, the superficiality of direct communication. Wisdom, it seems, would not be so rare and difficult a thing if it could simply be “told” by one person to another.
— Arthur Melzer, “On the Pedagogical Motive for Esoteric Writing,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 69, Issue 4, November 2007, p. 1017
Patch grief with proverbs.
— Leonato, scene i
"...whatever... you pretend... if any of you be a prayerless person, or a scoffer, or a lover of evil company (proverbs 13:20), in a word, if you are not a holy, strict, and self-denying Christian, you cannot be saved." (Hebrews 12:14; Matthew 15:14).
joseph alleine— pg.21. (An Alarm to the Unconverted aka A Sure Guide to Heaven (First Published 1671))
I do admit to mocking atheists, because mockery is a legitimate form of debate according to my rule Book. God Himself mocks evil men who refuse His moral government (see proverbs 1:26-27).
ray comfort— Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of Atheistic Evolution. Los Angeles: WorldNetDaily. 2009-09-22. p. 90. ISBN 9781935071235.
— edit of statement in "Cruelty and hatred", Atheist Central, 27 April 2009, retrieved on 2011-10-21
Let your daughter have first of all the book of Psalms for holiness of heart, and be instructed in the proverbs of Solomon for her godly life.
jerome— Letter 107 (Sourced)
The best models of English writing are Shakespeare and the Old Testament, especially the book of Job, the Psalms, the proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. ... In writing English the most important quality that you can acquire is style. It makes all the difference to anyone who reads what you write, whether you use the best phrases in the best way.
aleister crowley— First and only letter to his son Aleister Ataturk (May 1947), as quoted in Do What Thou Wilt : A Life of Aleister Crowley (2000) by Lawrence Sutin, p. 416
.. since then I have found consolation in William Blake. "Without Contraries is no progression", he says in his proverbs of Hell . And Charles Baudelaire’s idea that "Variety is an essential condition of life" seems to me to be in perfect accord with my aspirations and with my intention, as a Futurist painter, to put 'life' in the place occupied by 'reasoning' in the art of the Cubist period.
— Gino Severini, connecting Futurism and Cubism, referring to Blake and Baudelaire; as quoted in Letters of the great artists'”, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson , London, 1963, p. 247
proverbs are short sentences drawn from long and wise experience.
Miguel de Cervantes— Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605-1615).
proverbs depend for their truth entirely on the occasion they are applied to. Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.
george santayana— George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. 5: Reason in Science (1906), Ch. 8: "Prerational Morality"
proverbs like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions.
ralph waldo emerson— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation.
I do exceedingly commend the Judges that are curious and almost subtil, Astuti (which is the word used in the proverbs of Solomon in a good sense, when it is to a good end) to invent reasons and means to make Acts, according to the just intent of the parties, and to avoid wrong and injury which by rigid rules might be wrought out of the Act.
— Hobart, CJ., Earl of Clanrickard's Case (1614), Lord Hobart's Rep. 277.
The fear of God is described as the beginning of knowledge (proverbs (1:7)). Finally, when everything has been heard, fear God and keep His commands for this is the whole of human condition: God judges every deed, even secret ones, to see if it is good or bad.
— Ecclesiastes (12:13-14), in An Introduction to Judaism, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p.197
My friends, these are the times that define us. proverbs 24:6. O, by wise council, you shall make your war.
— Who: Quentin Travers (Harris Yulin)
— Source: Episode 7.09 "Never Leave Me"
The "sayings" of a community, its proverbs, are its characteristic comment upon life; they imply its history, suggest its attitude toward the world and its way of accepting life. Such an idiom makes the finest language any writer can have; and he can never get it with a notebook. He himself must be able to think and feel in that speech — it is a gift from heart to heart.
willa cather— "Miss Jewett"
