A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.
Interpretation
A proverb reflects individual insight yet conveys universal truth and understanding.
This quote by Bertrand Russell highlights that while a proverb may originate from a single person's cleverness, its essence captures the shared wisdom of humanity. It implies that proverbs are not just personal insights but reflections of collective experience and understanding that resonate with many people over time.
In practice
In a speech about community values, one might include this quote to emphasize the importance of collective wisdom.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties is knowledge of the enemy; and this knowledge can only be derived, in the first instance, from the converted spy. Hence it is essential that the converted spy be treated with the utmost liberality.
Sometimes early in my career I thought what I did was who I was. As you mature, I've learned that is not the case. This is what I do, this is not who I am.
But it is hard to know them from friends, they are so obsequious and full of protestations; for a wolf resembles a dog, so doth a flatterer a friend.
There are few things more powerful than a life lived with passionate clarity.
There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all its virtues are of no avail.
We can never make ourselves better by trying... praying more or longer, studying more of the Word, performing good works, etc. Don't get me wrong... it's not bad to do any of these things. In fact, it's good. It's just that doing them in God's power is the only way those things will have any real and lasting effect in our lives.
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