Proverbial Wisdom

Express the idea behind each of these proverbs using different words as much as you can.

Introduction

On this page you will a find a selection of brief sayings, including short quotations from English literature as well as traditional proverbs. Choose a saying, and try to express the idea in different words as much as you can. In what circumstances might you use this quotation?

Note: Many of these proverbs and quotations are in archaic English, and neither grammar nor spelling has been modernised.

1. A burthen’d conscience
Will never need a hangman.

Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) and John Fletcher (1579-1625)

Laws of Candy (Cassilane), Act V, Scene I

2. A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)

The Professor at the Breakfast Table, Ch. X

3. Authors, like coins, grow dear as they grow old;
It is the rust we value, not the gold.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Imitations of Horace, Bk II, Ep. I

4. The brave
Die never. Being deathless, they but change
Their country’s arms, for more, their country’s heart.

Philip James Bailey (1816-1902)

Festus (Festus), V

5. The cottage is sure to suffer for every error of the court, the cabinet, or the camp.

Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832)

Lacon, V

6. The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to scourge us.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

King Lear (Edgar), Act V, Scene III

Read Next

Apple of My Eye

See if you can imagine an appropriate situation for these phrases, all taken from the English Bible published in 1611 and all still used in everyday speech.

Metaphors

Choose one of these words and use it metaphorically, not literally.

Tag Questions

Complete each of these statements with a little request for confirmation.