What really are proverbs, where do they come from, how are they disseminated and what function do they have in modern society? Those are questions that are often asked when people reflect on the ...

A PROVERB, says the Oxford Dictionary, is ‘a short pithy saying in common and recognized use; a concise sentence, often metaphorical or alliterative in form, which is held to express some truth ...

On the surface, the idea is straightforward. Give someone a fish and they eat for a day. Give them a fishing rod and they can keep feeding themselves. The contrast is clear enough that you don’t ...

From "early bird" to "gift horse," there's a proverb for every situation. While they don't hold absolute truth, parents and advertisers find them useful. Wolfgang Mieder tells DW how to create one - ...

From old chestnuts like “no pain, no gain” to sports wisdom like “the best offence is a good defence”, there seems to be a proverb for everything. There’s good reason: proverbs touch on just about ...

Proverb of the day: “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” The above proverb “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors” might appear to be about sailing and survival at sea. However, the lines ...

This week’s guest on Poetry in Daily Life is Nile Stanley, PhD, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida. A teacher educator, artist-in-residence, and researcher for 36 years, he has been on a mission to ...

It is time, in this series on the books of the Bible, to take a quick look at Proverbs. I also did this back in early 2016, but the purpose then was simply to pluck some of the proverbs that had ...

PROF Wolfgang Mieder (born 1944) is best known for his work on paremiology. Paroemias means proverbs and paremiology is the study of proverbs. Mieder says that the discussion as to what proverb is and ...