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.
By becoming the answer to someone's prayer, we often find the answer to our own.
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
If you come on a band tense, you're going to play tense. If you come a little bit foolish, act just a little bit foolish, and let yourself go, better ideas will come.
Even a correct decision is wrong when it was taken too late.
Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.
Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will.
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