Proverbs for the Bloggers

By Justin Hargett, Associate Publicist

In his most recent book about language, As They Say in Zanzibar: Proverbial Wisdom from Around the World, David Crystal has collected and sorted some of the world’s most interesting proverbs and sorted them by theme and topic.  After looking through the book, I’ve taken an extra step and found many that could easily be applied to the art of blogging (maybe with a little technological updating, in some cases). Here’s a sampling of precious world wisdom for both readers and writers alike as they surf the blogosphere:

• After three days without reading, talk becomes flavourless – China

• Think much, say little, write less – France

• Good scribes are not those who write well, but who erase well – Russia

• Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel – China

• Where hands are needed words and letters are useless – Germany

• What one writes remains – Netherlands

• Wise silence has never been written down – Italy

Here are some more proverbs about reading and literature in general. To listen to David Crystal discuss some of his own favorites, listen to this podcast from WBUR’s On Point. Feel free to add your own favorite proverbs (for blogging, or just for living) below in the comments section.

• Other people’s books are difficult to read – Netherlands

• There is no worse robber than a bad book – Italy

• If you want to be acquainted with the past and the present, you must read five cartloads of books – China

• To read a book for the first time is to make the acquaintance of a new friend; to read it a second time is to meet an old one – China

• Life without literature is death – Latin

• It is not good to be the poet of a village – Germany

• There dies a poet in everyone – England

• Poets are fathers of lies – Latin

• Poets and pigs are appreciated only after their death – Italy

• Slowly but surely the excrement of foreign poets will come to your village – Mali

• The dog may be wonderful prose, but only the cat is poetry – France