Proverbial Quotes - Page 2

• The proverbial Englishman, we know from old chronicler Froissart, takes his pleasures sadly, and the Englishwoman goes a step further and takes her pleasures in sadness itself.

  Jerome K. Jerome

  Funny, Humorous, Sadness

  Jerome K. Jerome (2016). “The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow”, p.26, Jerome K. Jerome

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• Besides, it happens (how, I cannot tell) that an idea launched like a javelin in proverbial form strikes with sharper point on the hearer's mind and leaves implanted barbs for meditation.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Ideas, Meditation, Mind

  Desiderius Erasmus, William Watson Barker (2001). “The Adages of Erasmus”, p.16, University of Toronto Press

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• What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes? Take fifty of our current proverbial sayings—they are so trite, so threadbare, that we can hardly bring our lips to utter them. None the less they embody the concentrated experience of the race, and the man who orders his life according to their teaching cannot go far wrong. How easy that seems! Has any one ever done so? Never. Has any man ever attained to inner harmony by pondering the experience of others? Not since the world began! He must pass through the fire.

  Norman Douglas

  Teaching, Men, Fire

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• The proverbial wisdom of the populace in the street, on the roads, and in the markets instructs the ear of him who studies man more fully than a thousand rules ostentatiously displayed.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Men, Ears, Study

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• The English love for privacy is proverbial, and has not been exaggerated. A stranger who strikes up a conversation is looked upon with suspicion - unless he happens to be an American, when his ignorance of good manners is indulged.

  Henry Steele Commager

  Ignorance, Good Man, Privacy

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• It is a proverbial expression that every man is the maker of his own fortune, and we usually regard it as implying that every man by his folly or wisdom prepares good or evil for himself. But we may view it in another light, namely, that we may so accommodate ourselves to the dispositions of Providence as to be happy in our lot, whatever may be its privations.

  Alexander von Humboldt

  Men, Light, Views

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• Vulgarism in language is the distinguishing characteristic of bad company, and a bad education. A man of fashion avoids nothing with more care than that. Proverbial expressions, and trite sayings, are the flowers of the rhetoric of vulgar man.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Fashion, Flower, Men

  Lord Chesterfield, David Roberts (2008). “Lord Chesterfield's Letters”, p.162, Oxford University Press

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• I hitched my wagon to an electron rather than the proverbial star.

  David Sarnoff

  Stars, Wagons, Electrons

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• As to the permanent interest of individuals in the aggregated interests of the community, and in the proverbial maxim, that honesty is the best policy, present temptation is often found to be an overmatch for those considerations.

  James Madison

  Honesty, Community, Temptation

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• Proverbial wisdom counsels against risk and change. But sitting ducks fare worst of all.

  Mason Cooley

  Change, Ducks, Risk

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• Placing the state in charge of moral principles is equivalent to putting the proverbial fox in charge of the chicken coop.

  Murray Rothbard

  Principles, Foxes, Moral

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• As far as my experience goes, men of genius are fairly gifted with the social qualities; and in this age, there appears to be a fellow-feeling among them, which had not heretofore been developed. As men, they ask nothing better than to be on equal terms with their fellow-men; and as authors, they have thrown aside their proverbial jealousy, and acknowledge a generous brotherhood.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Men, Feelings, Brotherhood

  Nathaniel Hawthorne (2012). “Mosses from an Old Manse”, p.107, Lulu.com

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• Travel is the realm of the impossible adventures, the quick fix, the ship passing in the night.  It entitles you to meet interesting people, whom you would never meet, even if you laid traps or advertised for them.  Not only do you met them, but you also unmeet them, all in the space of, it often seems, a mere compacted evening.  As there is so little time, bodies in motion drop their guard and immediately get on with their stories.  Then the proverbial ships part, each to its destination, never again to brush each other's wake.

  Lawrence Millman

  Adventure, Night, Space

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• History is often the tale of small moments—chance encounters or casual decisions or sheer coincidence—that seem of little consequence at the time, but somehow fuse with other small moments to produce something momentous, the proverbial flapping of a butterfly’s wings that triggers a hurricane.

  Scott Anderson

  Butterfly, Wings, Decision

  Scott Anderson (2013). “Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East”, p.89, Anchor

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• The lady is proverbial for her skill in eluding definition ... she may be described merely as the female of the favored social class.

  Emily James Smith Putnam

  Class, Skills, Female

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• Wisdom is not book learning but, rather, a quality or state of knowing what is true or right coupled with the judgment to discern constructive action. Wisdom is the insight and intuition contained in the proverbial still, small voice that only a quiet mind can hear and know.

  Sue Thoele

  Wisdom, Book, Voice

  Sue Patton Thoele (2008). “The Mindful Woman: Gentle Practices for Restoring Calm, Finding Balance, and Opening Your Heart”, p.96, New Harbinger Publications

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• I suspect we have internal senses. The mind's eye since Shakespeare's time has been proverbial; and we have also a mind's ear. To say nothing of dreams, one certainly can listen to one's own thoughts, and hear them, or believe that one hears them: the strongest argument adducible in favour of our hearing any thing.

  Augustus William Hare

  Dream, Believe, Eye

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• You may never have heard of Joseph Overton and his proverbial window but you most certainly have heard the Republican presidential campaign in 2015 year not just flinging the window open but shattering all its glass.

  Rachel Maddow

  Glasses, Years, Presidential

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• As the Tories know, the problem with setting yourself up as a shining example for others to follow is that when you get caught out, that proverbial substance really hits the fan.

  Jo Brand

  Shining, Example, Fans

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• There are but few proverbial sayings that are not true, for they are all drawn from experience itself, which is the mother of all sciences.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Mother, Motherhood, Experience

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• Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. General recognition of this fact is shown in the proverbial phrase "It is the busiest man who has time to spare."

  C. Northcote Parkinson

  Work, Men, Phrases

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• The bottom line is that if I did it, you can do it. I got rich without the benefit of a college education or a penny of capital but making many errors along the way. I went from being a pauper.. a hippie dropout on the dole, living in a crummy room without the proverbial pot to piss in, without even the money to pay the rent, without a clue as to what to do next.. to being rich...

  Felix Dennis

  Encouragement, Money, Mistake

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• Augustus, perhaps you’d like to share your fears with the group.” “My fears?” “Yes.” “I fear oblivion,” he said without a moment’s pause. “I fear it like the proverbial blind man who’s afraid of the dark.” “Too soon,” Isaac said, cracking a smile. “Was that insensitive?” Augustus asked. “I can be pretty blind to other people’s feelings.

  John Green

  Dark, Men, People

  John Green (2008). “Paper Towns”, p.245, Penguin

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• There is a proverbial saying chiefly concerned with warning against too closely calculating the numerical value of un-hatched chicks.

  Neil Gaiman

  Warning, Chicks, Concerned

  "Stardust". Book by Neil Gaiman, 1998.

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• I fear oblivion. I fear it like the proverbial blind man who's afraid of the dark.

  John Green

  Dark, Men, Blind

  John Green (2008). “Paper Towns”, p.245, Penguin

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