Wednesday November 7, 2007
Proverbs, maxims and aphorisms
By VANCE CARSON
WHO dares wins. Curiosity killed the cat. Smell the roses while you can. Fine feathers don’t make a fine bird. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Don’t count your chickens until they’ve hatched.
Or:
Go for it! Mind your own business! Enjoy good times while they last. Good clothes don’t make people good. Don’t gamble what you have for what you want. Don’t celebrate winning before you’ve run the race.
Recently, while compiling material for a lesson on proverbs, I was reminded of how some proverbs and words of wisdom can be truly inspiring and give good advice in a delightfully poetic manner. Looking back on my formative years, I can say that a great many proverbs shaped the way I now think or at least they may have kick-started the process of questioning my life and trying to understand it.
Proverbs are simple sayings which are widely repeated to advise us on truth, morality and happiness, and are drawn from the collected wisdom gained from practical experience and common sense. They also derive from religious teachings, superstitious belief and folklore, and they can at times mock or poke fun at the human condition.
Proverbs also have a multitude of international sources and represent aeons of human knowledge passed down in the oral tradition, such as the teachings of Buddha (“if anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart”).
Proverbs have also been handed down through the generations in historically important works of literature and philosophy such as the Hadith (“eat together and not separately, for the blessings [are] associated with the company”), the New Testament (“love your enemies”) and the Bhagavadgita (“over the inevitable, thou should not grieve”).
Aphorisms, unlike the common treasure trove of anonymously authored proverbs, are gems of wit and wisdom which can usually be traced to well-known writers and thinkers. Famous aphorists include Confucius (“before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves”), Nietzsche (“what does not destroy me makes me stronger”), Voltaire (“I may disagree with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it”), and Oscar Wilde (“a man’s face is his autobiography, a woman’s face is her work of fiction”).
Maxims go further than the witty or clever nature of an aphorism insofar as they can represent the code of conduct and high moral principles of their author, or those who choose a maxim as their own personal motto.
One of the most famous collections of maxims was penned by François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (“how can we expect another to keep our secret when we cannot keep it ourselves”, “we are never so happy nor so unhappy as we imagine”).
For me, the finest examples of moral proverbs are found in the pages of Aesop’s Fables. Aesop, a slave in sixth century BC Greece, authored, collected and recited moral tales, usually involving the exploits of anthropomorphic animals.
Of the vast cornucopia of fables collected by Aesop, perhaps the most famous is the tale of the tortoise and the hare who both took part in a race. The arrogant hare was so fast he decided to have a quick sleep halfway to the finish line, totally dismissing the tortoise’s chances of beating him. Meanwhile, the slow and plodding tortoise kept on going, and eventually passed the sleeping hare to win the race.
The moral of the story: “sure and steady wins the race”.
I also happen to like the tale of the lioness and the bitch. The lioness gave birth to just one cub, and was seen by a dog who had mothered a huge litter of mongrel puppies. The bitch taunted and teased the lioness about her lack of children. But the lioness was unmoved by the criticism and simply replied that she may only have one cub, but it was a lion!
The moral of the story: “quality, not quantity”.
However, not all proverbs are as easy to understand as the morals of Aesop’s Fables. As a young man who took things far too literally, I really had no idea what some proverbs meant.
“Two heads are better than one” had me conjuring up images of a two-headed ogre who was quite miserable with his dual-mouthed situation. What if one head wanted some peace and quiet and the other head always wanted to chat? What if one of the heads had bad breath or a nasty cold?
“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link” also confused me as I imagined the problem could be solved by purchasing a heavy steel chain which had very strong links. Its weakest link would then be stronger than most other chains in a hardware shop, so there would be nothing to worry about.
“A rolling stone gathers no moss” – why would it want to gather moss, what’s the big deal about moss? Maybe a rolling stone would rather collect some flowers or berries to eat? Yet how could an inanimate bit of rock gather anything?
“There is safety in numbers” – not for me there wasn’t. As a boy I was absolutely diabolical at maths and hated any form of arithmetic.
I also remember being utterly baffled and bemused by the proverbs “a stitch in time saves nine”, “no use crying over spilt milk” and “many hands make light work”.
Why would sewing up a clock save the number nine? Is nine being bullied by the numbers eight and ten? And why can’t I cry if I spill the last of the milk; what else am I going to put in my tea? And how do a crowd of people manage to turn on an electric light-bulb just by doing something with their hands? Maybe they all have “clapper” switches in their homes – clap on, clap off.
“The pen is mightier than the sword” – tell that to a samurai on his way to battle! I doubt he’d swap his razor-sharp katana for a Parker ballpoint. “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” is a good reason to become a vegetarian, I think.
However, “actions speak louder than words” remains the most perplexing and misleading proverb that I remember from my childhood. My poor mother had to endure her son constantly trying to disprove such wisdom. For instance, I’d sit her down and make her listen to me tiptoeing around the living room and then to me shouting at the top of my voice, simply to demonstrate that my words were louder than my actions.
Aside from their at times puzzling and ambiguous nature, some groups of proverbs also seem to follow a certain theme.
Revenge: “revenge is a dish best served cold” and “success is the best revenge”.
Rome: “all roads lead to Rome”, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” and “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.
Appearance: “illusion is the first of all pleasures”, “don’t judge a book by its cover” and “all that glitters is not gold”.
Other proverbs give us contradictory messages: “absence makes the heart grow fonder” and yet “out of sight out of mind”. Or “strike while the iron is hot” and “time and tide wait for no man” yet “all good things come to those who wait”. “Birds of a feather flock together” and yet “opposites attract.
In the classroom, I sometimes use proverbs to meet the “moral message” requirement of the school curriculum. However, in the classroom, I disagree with the proverb that “silence is golden” as it is so important to practise speaking English, and not simply rely on writing, reading and listening skills.
It is also important for teachers to remember that “you can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.
Keep thinking of new ways to make lessons interesting for “necessity is the mother of invention”.
Vance Carson is a Project English Teacher at Sekolah Menengah Agama Persekutuan Kajang, for CfBT Malaysia.
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