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/bʊk əv prˈɑvərbz/ Listen

noun

Proverb n.

An old and common saying; a phrase which is often repeated; especially, a sentence which briefly and forcibly expresses some practical truth, or the result of experience and observation; a maxim; a saw; an adage.

A striking or paradoxical assertion; an obscure saying; an enigma; a parable. "His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb."

A familiar illustration; a subject of contemptuous reference. "Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by word, among all nations."

A drama exemplifying a proverb.

Book of Proverbs, a canonical book of the Old Testament, containing a great variety of wise maxims.

Synonyms: Maxim; aphorism; apothegm; adage; saw.

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Etymology of 'Book of Proverbs'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Book of proverbs" Quotes from Famous Books

... lot fell was the 12th verse of the 9th chapter in the Book of Proverbs, 'If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself,'" he said solemnly; "whereby I perceive that I shall not be justified in parting with that which you seek without fitting recompense. I ask you, therefore, young man, what ...

— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon

... needed for ruling in these old days, when the king was judge as well as ruler and captain. Was this the highest gift that he could have asked or received? Surely the deep longings of his father for communion with God were yet better. No doubt the 'wisdom' of the Book of Proverbs is religion and morality as well as true thinking, but the 'understanding heart to judge Thy people' which Solomon asked and received is narrower and more secular in its meaning. There is no sign in his biography ...

— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... no more than crystallised common-sense. Everyone knows that a cheerful mind suffuses health, while a gloomy one produces conditions favourable to disease. "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine," says the writer of the Book of Proverbs, "but a broken spirit drieth the bones." But this knowledge, since it lacked a scientific basis, has never been systematically applied. We have regarded our feelings far too much as effects and not sufficiently as causes. We are happy because we are well; we do not recognise that the process ...

— The Practice of Autosuggestion • C. Harry Brooks

... by all our words. It is all very well to lecture about the efficiency of a machine; let us see it at work, and that will convince people. We preach; but you preach far more eloquently, and far more effectively, by your lives. 'In all labour,' says the Book of Proverbs, 'there is profit'—which we may divert from its original meaning to signify that in all Christian living there is force to attract—'but the talk of the lips tendeth only to poverty.' Oh! if the Christian men and women of England would live their Christianity, they would do more to convert the ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren

... means were now again reduced to about L30, as only about L150 had come in since June 15. In addition to this, we had very heavy expenses before us. This morning, in reading through the book of Proverbs, when I came to chapter xxii. 19—'That thy trust may be in the Lord, &c.,' I said in prayer to Him: 'Lord, I do trust in Thee; but wilt Thou now be pleased to help me; for I am in need of means for the current expenses of all the various objects of the Institution.' By the first delivery ...

— Answers to Prayer - From George Mueller's Narratives • George Mueller