The New Student's Reference Work/Proverbs

Prov′erbs are very hard to define; but nearly everybody knows one when he sees or hears it. Perhaps the best description is that of Cipriano de Valera: “Proverbs are short sayings, sententious and true, and long since accepted as such by common consent.” The distinctive characteristic of the proverb is that it is a popular current saying, adopted as a convenience by the community. It must indeed have shortness, sense, salt, pith and other qualities, but it also is necessary that these should be so combined that it will strike the popular fancy and thereby come into general use. It has been well-said that no one man ever made a proverb. It has equally well been said that “the proverb is the wisdom of many and the wit of one." He may have made an original saying, but the proverb is a creature of popular suffrage. Not only is this the case, but they pass from one nation to another and become the property of the race; and for this reason it is impossible to determine even the nationality of some of our best and most popular proverbs. The office of the proverb is to “hit the nail on the head,” to “put the matter in a nutshell,” to speak the last word, to settle the issue without further argument or discussion. Of all national groups of proverbs the Spanish contains the greatest number, 25,000 or 30,000; and they are as racy as numerous. Among oriental proverbs the Arabic ones hold the first place in quantity and perhaps also in quality, but the Persian and Hindustani proverbs also are excellent, and in the Turkish there sometimes is a vein of poetry that is very striking. It is a question whether the tender beauty of our proverb: “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb” is not rivaled by its Turkish parallel: “God makes a nest for the blind bird.”