Proverbs
Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: All Empires Community
Forum Name: AE Tavern
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URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=32248
Printed Date: 06-Jun-2024 at 13:49
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Topic: Proverbs
Posted By: Mountain Man
Subject: Proverbs
Date Posted: 20-Aug-2012 at 17:10
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Given the eclectic nature of the membership here, I thought a thread on the proverbs and sayings from various nations and backgrounds might be interesting. Americans of a certain age - ahem...cough...mumble...remember growing up with "A stitch in Time saves nine", and "A penny earned is a penny saved", but some of the sayings we have a very regional and unique. My ancestors were Irish hardrock gold miners in the Sierra-Nevada mountains. My father was born in the last operating stagecoach station in America, and the sayings used by the men in that area were unique to a very small region. Here are two of my favorites: "Talk is cheap, but good whiskey costs money". This saying got started in the local saloons when a man would promise to buy the next round and then sneak off after getting his free drink. It essentially says "put you money where your mouth is", but said aloud in a saloon full of other men, it branded someone as a person whose word was not to be trusted, essentially one of the worst things that could be said about any man in a country where a man's word was his bond, and a measure of his honor and integrity. "The only thing worse than a crippled steer is a lost Pilgrim." In the mountains, cattle frequently break legs, and when they do they limp around in a small circle bawling at the top of their lungs and drawing every predator nearby. A "Pilgrim" was a newcomer from back East, not used to the country or the mountains, and when lost could be counted on to go around in useless circles making a lot of unnecessary noise and causing confusion until someone arrived to either put him out of his misery, or less likely, to rescue him...and it was clearly understood that hard working men had much better things to do than look after those who could not adequately look after themselves. |
Replies:
Posted By: Centrix Vigilis
Date Posted: 20-Aug-2012 at 17:48
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''keep your hatchet sharp.....and your powder dry". "keep your eyes on the skyline... ya gawdamn feet will tell ya what tis on the ground". self explanatory. Whether ya a Cav scout from 1840 or.....today.
------------- "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" S. T. Friedman Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true' |
Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 24-Aug-2012 at 18:30
Looks like it's just you and me.... I'll take the military approach and list some of Murphy's Famous Rules Of War: If everything is goli9ng according to plan, youre walking into an ambush. ------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Delenda est Roma
Date Posted: 24-Aug-2012 at 18:37
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" In war anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong. ------------- |
Posted By: TheAlaniDragonRising
Date Posted: 24-Aug-2012 at 18:40
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This is not really a proverb, but if read properly it seems like one. A wise old owl lived in an oak The more he saw the less he spoke The less he spoke the more he heard. Why can't we all be like that wise old bird? ------------- What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture. |
Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 24-Aug-2012 at 18:49
A logical extension of Murphy's Universal Law, although I personally consider Murphy to have been an incurable optimist! And if Murphy is to be believed at all, what does that make the Universe and Man? A colossal mistake?  Another way of saying what you said in Murphy's Rules of War is: No plan, no matter how well founded, survives first contact with the enemy. One of my favorites, though is this one: If the enemy is in range, so are you.  ------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 25-Aug-2012 at 20:56
"A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down."  Murphy ------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 25-Aug-2012 at 20:58
From an old sci-fi story called The Marching Morons by C.M. Kornbluth: http://www.amazon.com/The-Marching-Morons-C-Kornbluth/dp/0345607600 "See the happy morons. They do not give a damn. I wish I were a moron. My God - perhaps I am." ------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Centrix Vigilis
Date Posted: 25-Aug-2012 at 22:19
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''Death must be boring as hell.....no one ever says anything.'' Sgt DBG.....Yakima Firing Center; near an ancient Indian grave yard at O dark hundred. ------------- "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" S. T. Friedman Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true' |
Posted By: TheAlaniDragonRising
Date Posted: 26-Aug-2012 at 06:02
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A spoon does not know the taste of soup, nor a learned fool the taste of wisdom ~Welsh Proverb ------------- What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture. |
Posted By: Centrix Vigilis
Date Posted: 26-Aug-2012 at 06:41
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"If you thought you had the easy path in life due you.... because you believed you were nice and thoughtful of others ...get real. The truth is... you still will have to fight for every scrape of happiness you ever find". ------------- "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" S. T. Friedman Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true' |
Posted By: TheAlaniDragonRising
Date Posted: 26-Aug-2012 at 06:45
 ------------- What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture. |
Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 31-Aug-2012 at 16:41
Not if you're born rich...  ------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Don Quixote
Date Posted: 31-Aug-2012 at 17:24
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A Bulgarian proverb "Ä word don't make a hole but from word it hurts the most".
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Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 01-Sep-2012 at 11:49
All that glitters is not gold. 90% of it is just shiny  ."
------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Don Quixote
Date Posted: 01-Sep-2012 at 12:10
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The Bulgarian variation of the above is "Not everything that flyis is good for eating".
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Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 02-Sep-2012 at 18:05
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"Never bring a knife to a gunfight."
------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Centrix Vigilis
Date Posted: 02-Sep-2012 at 20:13
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Did you see that son of a bitch comming? Sgt DBG, US Army Sniper School, Fort Benning Ga. ------------- "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" S. T. Friedman Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true' |
Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 04-Sep-2012 at 21:03
Never squat when you're wearing spurs. 
------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Centrix Vigilis
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 01:45
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Shit..wet or dry still stinks. Sgt DBG. On reconn approx 0200, Vic sheep pens, Camp Gowan Field, Id. ------------- "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" S. T. Friedman Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true' |
Posted By: red clay
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 10:09
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Never wear a steel hat in a thunderstorm.
Never jump a hedge with a horse unless your Damn sure what's on the other side.
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Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 11:31
I would add "Don't play golf in a thunderstorm to your first one". We lose a few every year in Colorado to that sport at that time. They also seem to forget that they are wearing metal spikes on their feet.  If you can keep your head while all those around you are losing theirs, you don't undertstand the situation. ------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: red clay
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 12:35
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I worked in Golf for 11 years, I never saw a person hit by lightning. The course I worked on was the highest point in the county and pretty much everyone knew the danger. I did however, have the experience of getting caught in the open, and on the highest point on the course, during a hellacious lightning storm. I spent 10 minutes kissing the bottom of a sandtrap.
Question, you mentioned steel spikes, here in the East, steel spikes are no longer allowed on the courses. It's a reversal. When I worked at it, you were not allowed to wear sneakers or any of the rubber spike products, now those are allowed, but steel isn't.
 Are steel spikes allowed elsewhere? Maybe there is someone I could sell my spike wrench to.  "Keep yo head, yo need yo head, yo brains is in it!" Hy Lit's Nightly sign off from sta. WIBG ca. 1965
A spooky side note. While I was writing this, a lightning storm snuck up on us here. I was just about to post this when lightning hit a tree in my neighbors yard, split it right down the middle.
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Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 12:39
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Never urinate on an electric fence...or a lawnmower that's running. I've seen both of those done and it ain't pretty.  ------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: red clay
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 12:52
  No words.  |
Posted By: Don Quixote
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 14:51
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Anoter Bulgarian one "People welcome one by one's clothes, but take a farewell to one's brain". Sounds awful in English; the meaning is that people get impressed by appearance only in the first moment, then it's a matter of wits to leave an impression. ------------- |
Posted By: red clay
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 17:16
There is something nearly identical from the Penna. Dutch. Maybe you think it sounds awful, it's fine.
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Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 19:08
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Incoming fire has the right of way.
------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Centrix Vigilis
Date Posted: 05-Sep-2012 at 19:16
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''My Captain? You dont say a gawdamn word about my Captain....your not even close to being a pimple on his ass on a bad day.'' SSgt DBG. Change of Command Ceremony. Fortress Campbell, Ky. 1986. Watch the high ground MM.. my best to Reb. ------------- "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" S. T. Friedman Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true' |
Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 13-Sep-2012 at 22:27
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When in doubt, do something. It is always better to ask forgiveness than to seek permission. Lead, follow or get out of the way. ------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: TheAlaniDragonRising
Date Posted: 13-Sep-2012 at 23:04
------------- What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture. |
Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 14-Sep-2012 at 15:41
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"Never hang a man with too much rope." "Never share a foxhole with a hero - he'll draw unwanted enemy fire." ------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |
Posted By: Centrix Vigilis
Date Posted: 19-Sep-2012 at 10:17
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" Lead the goddamn thing then you idiot...Gunner... add 1 mil and reengage". SSG DBG. 'Valley of Death' National Training Center, Fortress Irwin, Ca. 1988. ------------- "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" S. T. Friedman Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true' |
Posted By: Don Quixote
Date Posted: 19-Sep-2012 at 10:58
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A Bulgarian one - "What a trouble one can get oneself in whole town with people cannot put him in".
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Posted By: Centrix Vigilis
Date Posted: 19-Sep-2012 at 14:48
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''The problem with appeasers today..and for that matter since 81...is they don't mind their own damn business. And then piss in their boots when others try to show them their error of their way. Then call me and mine war criminals after the fact. '' SFC DBG. Operation Desert Storm, Desert Shield, 1991. ------------- "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" S. T. Friedman Pilger's law: 'If it's been officially denied, then it's probably true' |
Posted By: Mountain Man
Date Posted: 29-Sep-2012 at 14:40
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My hand gun is my last chance to fight my way back to where I left my rifle.
------------- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? |