Old saws speak the truth.
Meaning: Time-tested sayings endure because experience has repeatedly proven their wisdom.
Origin: Recorded in A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, an undated collection published in London by Whittaker & Co. around 1880 and credited to Thomas Preston. Its earlier history hasn't been traced.
More proverbs about Communication
- Painted pictures are dead speakers. — Visual representations lack the power of living voice and direct human communication.
- Soft words butter no parsnips. — Gentle flattery alone cannot feed you; action and effort produce real, tangible results.
- Speak well of the dead. — Honoring those who've passed prevents spreading harm they can no longer defend themselves…
- Truth lies in a well. — Deep truths require effort and patience to excavate from obscurity, not quick surface obs…
- When wine sinks, words swim. — Alcohol loosens the tongue, making people speak freely or carelessly without their usual…
- Few words are best. — Silence demonstrates wisdom; excessive talk reveals ignorance and wastes others' time.
From our compliments & insults
- Faulpelz — A lazybones — someone who lounges around and avoids any effort, as warm and inert as a fu…
- Griesgram — A perpetual grump who radiates dissatisfaction and sucks the joy out of every room.
- Pantoffelheld — A man who is only bold and brave at home — a henpecked pushover who bluster turns into a…