Do not shun this maxim because it is common-place. On the contrary, take the closest heed of what observant men, who would probably like to show originality, are yet constrained to repeat. Therein lies the marrow of the wisdom of the world. – Arthur Helps, “Chapter IV,” Companions of My Solitude, 1851

Collections of gnomes, adages, sayings, and parables have been made from times immemorial in all countries and in all languages possessing some kind of literature. – E.H. Michelsen, A Manual of Quotations from the Ancient, Modern, and Oriental La

…the taste of the finely-worded truth rolled upon the tongue as its thought is revolved in the mind. – William Francis Henry King, “Introduction,” Classical and Foreign Quotations, 18

Proverbs are the daughters of daily experience. РDutch Proverb [Quoted in P.J. Harrebom̩e, Spreekwoordenboek der Nederlandsche t