“Look before you leap.” “Don’t take any wooden nickels.” “Better late than never.” These proverbs, and others like them, pepper our conversation without our even being aware of them. Many are metaphorical; perhaps wooden nickels once existed, but now they are just a stand-in for any trick or attempt to scam us. And if it is true that “the early bird catches the worm,” I may never succeed! Most of us can probably rattle off dozens of these adages without blinking an eye. But it is fun to explore their origins and meanings.
A proverb—from the Latin for “speak forth” or “declare”—is a short, traditional, pithy saying; a concise sentence, often in metaphorical or alliterative form, stating a general truth or piece of advice (www.oed.com). Caroline Taggart, also author of 500 Beautiful Words You Should Know and Her Ladyship’s Guide to the Queen’s English, has collected 200 of them in An Apple a Day: Old-Fashioned Proverbs–Timeless Words to Live By (2011), replete with sources, origins, and explanations of their meanings. You can find many more proverbs online.
Some of these proverbs came down to us as folk wisdom, but many more have their origin in the Bible (which devotes an entire Old Testament book to them), Aesop’s Fables, William Shakespeare’s Renaissance-era plays, or Alexander Pope’s 18th century poetry. Aesop was an enslaved storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. His stories were told orally, and were not recorded until long after his death. Many proverbs were collected in the 1538 Dialogue of Proverbs by playwright and poet John Heywood. There are so many that I will only be able to touch on my favorites here.
Many proverbs deal generally with food and the kitchen. “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” warns us that decisions made by committee are often flawed, so we are better off with one good leader (or chef). “You can’t have your cake and eat it too” literally means that once you’ve eaten the cake, you no longer have it—but metaphorically, this proverb means you can’t have it both ways, that is, you have to make a choice because it is not possible to have the benefits of both options simultaneously. For example, you can’t both get paid for working long hours and have more leisure time while earning less. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” which inspired the name of an Atlanta-based restaurant chain, means that you can’t know how an event or project will turn out until it actually happens. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” has a rather judgmental tone, admonishing the listener to toughen up and stop complaining. A more amusing and colloquial version of the same idea is “If you can’t run with the big dogs, get off the porch.”
“You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear” hails from a time when pigs were slaughtered for food but their ears became free leftovers. If you try to present cheap goods (or ill-bred people) as fancy or high class, you’ll be discovered—unless, of course, you’re Eliza Doolittle!
“To err is human, to forgive divine” is a quote from Alexander Pope’s 1711 poem “An Essay on Criticism,” demonstrating his brilliance by being composed when he was only 23 years old. It means that we all make mistakes, and the ability to forgive those who make them is a divine attribute. Pope is also coiner of “fools rush in where angels fear to tread,” which inspired the 1940 song by Johnny Mercer, made popular by Frank Sinatra, as well as Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” It means that the truly gifted person (angel) hesitates to attempt hard tasks, whereas fools think every task is easy but often fail in their attempts. “A little learning is a dangerous thing” is Pope’s caution that when you gain a smattering of knowledge (e.g. look something up on the internet) and think you know everything about it, you might make mistakes so egregious as to become dangerous. And finally, in his 1733 poem “An Essay on Man,” Pope coined “hope springs eternal in the human breast,” meaning that it is human nature to look on the bright side.
Aesop told stories about animals that usually ended with morals. One of these, “necessity is the mother of invention,” was popularized by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels. “A fish in the hand is worth two in the sea” from “The Fisherman and the Sprat” later became the more familiar “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” both meaning that it is better to be content with what you have than to risk losing it by chasing after something potentially more valuable, but not guaranteed. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” from Jupiter and the Monkey essentially means that we find beautiful that which we love or which helps us (Aesop.magde.info). And of course, “slow and steady wins the race” from “The Tortoise and the Hare” is always a good reminder not to rush.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the source of my all-time favorite proverb, probably because it involves flower imagery. As Laertes is leaving for university, his sister Ophelia warns him not to become a “reckless libertine [who]… the primrose path of dalliance treads.” Shakespeare uses various versions of this idea—which has been passed down as “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”—in other plays. Growing up in rural Warwickshire, Shakespeare was very familiar with the flora and fauna of his home countryside. He loved flowers, particularly the primrose, which he immortalizes here by making it an intriguing and enduring image of the road to hell (NosweatShakespeare.com). But the idea has its origins in the Bible, which distinguishes between the straight, narrow way to heaven and the easy, crooked way to hell, and warns against following evil men, “who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths” (Proverbs 1.15). The essential meaning—that plans are nice, but must be followed through to make a difference—is similar to “actions speak louder than words,” which has its origins in Aesop’s “Boasting Traveler,” but is echoed in the New Testament epistle of James with “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.”
Hamlet is also the source of “Brevity is the soul of wit,” where wit meant wisdom. That is, the shortest way to make your point is the most effective. This is advice to which I should pay attention! “All that glitters in not gold” is a quote from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, and means do not be dazzled by appearances. “Never judge a book by its cover” conveys a similar idea.
I have hardly touched on my many favorites, such as “every cloud has a silver lining,” “the darkest hour is just before dawn,” “the pen is mightier than the sword,” and “it takes a village to raise a child,” and “many hands make light work”—especially when cleaning up a mess or building something. In other words, help each other! “Don’t let the cat out of the bag,” a warning to keep the secret, has an interesting theory about its origin story. In the time of medieval market towns, unscrupulous sellers of pigs would hastily swap a cat for the porker that had been purchased and bagged for easier transport, with the duped purchaser discovering the substitution only upon returning home and letting the cat out of the bag.
Proverbs provide us with a wealth of good advice. But if “knowledge is power,” how can it also be true that “ignorance is bliss”? Apparently, power and bliss are mutually exclusive. Well, time flies when you’re having fun—more word play next month.
