Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things by Marcel Danesi

Author:Marcel Danesi
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US, New York

Rome wasn’t built in a day

(= advice to have patience)

Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched

(= advice to be cautious)

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth

(= equal treatment is required in love and war)

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise

(= this was Benjamin Franklin’s adaptation of Aesop’s proverb “The gods help them that help themselves”)

Every culture has its proverbs, aphorisms, and sayings. These constitute a remarkable code of ethics and practical knowledge that anthropologists call “folk wisdom.” Indeed, the very concept of wisdom implies the ability to apply proverbial language insightfully to a situation. As the American writer Maya Angelou has put it, proverbs have “couched the collective wisdom of generations.” It is interesting to note that one of the most popular publications of the eighteenth century in America was an almanac, called Poor Richard’s Almanac, written and published by Benjamin Franklin (1706–90). Apparently, it became popular, in part, because it contained alluring proverbs that have since become household sayings in America. Franklin came to the idea of the almanac early in his career, when he was a printer and publisher in Philadelphia. He issued the almanac for every year from 1733 to 1758, writing under the name of Richard Saunders, an imaginary astronomer. Similar to other almanacs of its time, Poor Richard’s included such features as a horoscope, practical advice, jokes, poems, and weather predictions. At first, Richard had little wit or humor. However, as his character developed, he became a clever spokesman for Franklin’s ideas on thrift, duty, hard work, and simplicity. Poor Richard’s Almanac grew into one of the most popular and influential works printed in colonial America. Many of its sayings have become famous. Here are two of them:

A penny saved is a penny earned.

God helps those who help themselves.

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