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Hoyt & Roberts, comps.  Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations.  1922.
 
Proverbs (Introduction)
 
I’ll tell the names and sayings and the places of their birth,
Of the seven great ancient sages so renowned on Grecian earth,
The Lindian Cleobulus said, “The mean was still the best”;
The Spartan Chilo, “Know thyself,” a heaven-born phrase confessed.
Corinthian Periander taught “Our anger to command,”
“Too much of nothing,” Pittacus, from Mitylene’s strand;
Athenian Solon this advised, “Look to the end of life,”
And Bias from Priene showed, “Bad men are the most rife”;
Milesian Thales urged that “None should e’er a surety be”;
Few were their words, but if you look, you’ll much in little see.
        From the Greek. Author unknown.		  1
Know thyself.—Solon.
Consider the end.—Chilo.
Know thy opportunity.—Pittacus.
Most men are bad.—Bias.
Nothing is impossible to industry.—Periander.
Avoid excess.—Cleobulus.
Suretyship is the precursor of ruin.—Thales.
        Mottoes of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. Inscribed in later days in the Delphian Temple.		  2
  The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered in its proverbs.
        Bacon.		  3
  Proverbs are short sentences drawn from long and wise experience.
        Cervantes—Don Quixote.		  4
No hay refran que no sea verdadero.
  There is no proverb which is not true.
        Cervantes—Don Quixote.		  5
As Love and I late harbour’d in one inn,
With proverbs thus each other entertain:
“In love there is no lack,” thus I begin;
“Fair words make fools,” replieth he again;
“Who spares to speak doth spare to speed,” quoth I;
“As well,” saith he, “too forward as too slow”;
“Fortune assists the boldest,” I reply;
“A hasty man,” quoth he, “ne’er wanted woe”;
“Labour is light where love,” quoth I,” doth pay”;
Saith he, “Light burden’s heavy, if far borne”;
Quoth I, “The main lost, cast the by away”;
“Y’have spun a fair thread,” he replies in scorn.
  And having thus awhile each other thwarted
  Fools as we met, so fools again we parted.
        Michael Drayton—Proverbs.		  6
  Proverbs like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions.
        Emerson—Compensation.		  7
Much matter decocted into few words.
        Fuller—Definition of a proverb. Worthies. Ch. II.		  8
A proverb and a byword among all people.
        I Kings. IX. 7.		  9
Maxims are the condensed good sense of nations.
        Sir J. Mackintosh. Quoted on the title page of Broom’s Legal Maxims. (1911).		  10
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.		  11
A proverb is one man’s wit and all men’s wisdom.
        Lord John Russell. In Notes to Roger’s Italy. (1848). Claimed by him as his original definition of a proverb.		  12
Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked.
        I Samuel. XXIV. 13. Said to be the oldest proverb on record.		  13
I can tell thee where that saying was born.
        Twelfth Night. Act I. Sc. 5. L. 9.		  14
Scoundrel maxim.
        Thomson—The Castle of Indolence. Canto 1. St. 50.		  15
Les maximes des hommes décèlent leur cœur.
  The maxims of men reveal their characters.
        Vauvenargues—Réflexions. CVII.		  16
 
 
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