While researching a thorny philosophical conundrum, I had cause to investigate the writings of prominent pre-Protestant Reformation thinkers. One was [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus"]Erasmus[/ame] of Rotterdam (1466-1536), a classic Greek and Roman researcher, deep thinker, and prolific writer. He collected and published classic proverbs during the Renaissance. Here is a partial list of ancient ideas that are still used today, most likely without any understanding that their underlying truth is more than 2000 years old: (I'd wager that you too have used one recently.) Enjoy! Make haste slowly One step at a time To be in the same boat To lead one by the nose A rare bird Even a child can see it To have one foot in Charon's boat (To have one foot in the grave) To walk on tiptoe One to one Out of tune A point in time I gave as bad as I got (I gave as good as I got) To call a spade a spade Hatched from the same egg Up to both ears (Up to his eyeballs) As though in a mirror Think before you start What's done cannot be undone Many parasangs ahead (Miles ahead) We cannot all do everything Many hands make light work A living corpse Where there's life, there's hope To cut to the quick Time reveals all things Golden handcuffs Crocodile tears To show the middle finger You have touched the issue with a needle-point (To have nailed it) To walk the tightrope Time tempers grief (Time heals all wounds) With a fair wind To dangle the bait To swallow the hook The bowels of the earth From heaven to earth The dog is worthy of his dinner To weigh anchor To grind one's teeth Nowhere near the mark Complete the circle In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king A cough for a fart No sooner said than done Neither with bad things nor without them (Women: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em) Between a stone and a shrine (Between a rock and a hard place) Like teaching an old man a new language (Can't teach an old dog new tricks) A necessary evil There's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip To squeeze water out of a stone To leave no stone unturned Let the cobbler stick to his last (Stick to your knitting) God helps those who help themselves The grass is greener over the fence The cart before the horse Dog in the manger One swallow doesn't make a summer His heart was in his boots To sleep on it To break the ice Ship-shape To die of laughing To have an iron in the fire To look a gift horse in the mouth Neither fish nor flesh Like father, like son Not worth a snap of the fingers He blows his own trumpet To show one's heels The work reflects a typical Renaissance attitude toward classical texts: to wit, that they were fit for appropriation and amplification, as expressions of a timeless wisdom first uncovered by the classical authors. It is, as well, an expression of the new Humanism. The Adagia could only have been possible in the new world of European education, in which careful attention to a broader range of classical texts produced a much fuller picture of the literature of antiquity than had been possible, or desired, in the medieval period. In a period in which sententiæ were often marked by special fonts and footnotes in printed texts, and in which the ability to use classical wisdom to bolster modern arguments was a critical part of scholarly and even political discourse, it is not surprising that Erasmus' Adagia was among the most popular volumes of the century. [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adagia]Adagia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] More complete examples/discussion: Proverbs, chiefly taken from the Adagia of Erasmus
What was the thorny conundrum? (I can't count the number of times I have been sidetracked when researching something. Looks like a similar situation.)
That's very interesting, Rokeby. I had no idea so many of those common sayings were so old. I'd guess they've been translated a few times over the millennia, though the meanings have apparently survived intact.
