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A proverbial phrase or expression is a type of conventional saying similar to a proverb and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context. [1] [2] In 1768, John Ray defined a proverbial phrase as:
The best known Hobson's choice is "I'll give you a choice: take it or leave it", wherein "leaving it" is strongly undesirable. The phrase is said to have originated with Thomas Hobson (1544–1631), a livery stable owner in Cambridge , England, who offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in his stall nearest to the door or ...
Henry Fuseli's painting of Odysseus facing the choice between Scylla and Charybdis, 1794–1796. Being between Scylla and Charybdis is an idiom deriving from Greek mythology, which has been associated with the proverbial advice "to choose the lesser of two evils". [1]
The proverb is mentioned in the Republic of Plato (424A and 449C) as a principle to be applied to marriage and procreation. Diogenes Laertius (VIII.10) reports the assertion of Timaeus that Pythagoras was first to use the saying, along with φιλία ἰσότης ( filía isótēs ) "Friendship is equality."
As to diseases, make a habit of two things: to help, or at least to do no harm." primus inter pares: first among equals: Position of the Ecumenical Patriarch in the Eastern Orthodox Church, position of the President of the Swiss Confederation among the members of the Federal Council, and a title of the Roman Emperors (cf. princeps).
Political cartoon c. 1900, showing the United States Congress as Buridan's ass (in the two hay piles version), hesitating between a Panama route or a Nicaragua route for an Atlantic–Pacific canal. Buridan's ass is an illustration of a paradox in philosophy in the conception of free will .
Éric Rohmer, the French film director, directed a series of films, the "Comedies and Proverbs", where each film was based on a proverb: The Aviator's Wife, The Perfect Marriage, Pauline at the Beach, Full Moon in Paris (the film's proverb was invented by Rohmer himself: "The one who has two wives loses his soul, the one who has two houses ...
A similar proverb in Japanese is 目の寄る所へ玉が寄る, literally "where the eyes go, the eyeballs follow" but with an understood idiomatic meaning of "like draws like", which can be translated into idiomatic English as "birds of a feather flock together", [13] as may the Japanese saying 類は友を呼ぶ, "similar calls a friend." [14]