Perusing a copy of David Crystal's As They Say in Zanzibar, it struck me that proverbs are really THEMES, and every good, professional writing has one or more theme that emerges from it. How about reversing the process--starting with a theme and working a story around it? To get you started, here are a Baker's dozen:
1. The spider does not weave its web for one fly--Slovenia
2. Heroism consists in hanging on one minute longer--Norway
3. One family builds the wall; two families enjoy it--China
4. Love and blindness are twin sisters--Ukraine
5. The nail suffers as much as the hole--Netherlands
6. When one door shuts, another opens--Scotland
7. No stone ever falls alone--Belgium
8. The person who steals once is always a thief--Spain
9. Two things make one either greater or smaller--praise and shadows--Germany
10. The story is only half told when one side tells it--Iceland
11. The one who seeks revenge should remember to dig two graves--China
12. Every road has two directions--Ukraine
And a bonus:
* When two elephants tussle, it's the grass that suffers--Zanzibar
Now, how about working some proverbial wisdom into a new piece of your own?
