Phraseology and Culture in English

pasa (He who is born to be a flower pot will not go beyond the porch) and 
A nopal nomás lo van a ver cuando tiene tunas (People go to the cactus 
only when it bears fruit). Bilingualism will, over time, also result in loan 
translations into English, thus spreading these primarily Mexican, Cuban, 

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Wolfgang Mieder 
and Puerto Rican proverbs throughout the country and enriching the Eng-
lish-language repertoire. This has happened, for example, with two German 
proverbs which the Pennsylvania Germans and other German immigrant 
groups brought with them to the United States, namely Man darf das Kind 
nicht mit dem Bade ausschütten (Don’t throw the baby out with the bath 
water) and Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Stamm (The apple does not fall 
far from the tree) (Mieder 1993: 193–224, 2000: 109–144). Immigrants from 
other countries have brought a wealth of new proverbs to North America, 
among them Chinese, Haitian, Irish, Italian, Russian, Scandinavian, and 
Vietnamese proverbs. And the Jews with their rich Yiddish proverb treas-
ure have also had a great influence with such wise and revealing proverbs 
as Laykhter tsen lender eyder eyn mentshn tsu derkenen (It is easier to know 
ten countries than one man) and Tsum shtarbn darf men keyn luakh nit 
hobn (You don’t need a calendar to die) (Mieder 1989a: 47–70). 
Just as certain ethnic and immigrant groups have their own proverbs, the 
different professions have also formulated proverbs that fit their interests. 
Proverbs like An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and An ap-
ple a day keeps the doctor away are old health rules, while If you hear hoof-
beats, think horses, not zebras is a modern piece of advice to young physi-
cians who might be looking too hard for rare diseases rather than common 
ailments. Just as medical doctors, lawyers have legal rules to fall back on, 
such as A man’s home is his castle; First come, first served, and even that 
infamous proverbial statement If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit. But 
there are as well proverbs that are current among farmers, teachers, busi-
ness people, artists, trades people, soldiers, athletes, politicians, etc. A few 
examples would be If the farmer fails, all will starve; Experience is the best 
teacher; Business before pleasure; Art is long, life is short; Two of a trade 
seldom agree; Old soldiers never die; Winning isn’t everything, and You
can’t beat city hall. But aspects of the American worldview are also ex-
pressed in certain lines of popular songs that have become proverbs, as for 
example The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence (Mieder 
1994: 515–542) and It takes two to tango. Popular culture, films, and the 
entire mass media use plenty of proverbs, and they certainly create new 
ones to fit innovative attitudes, as for example Hindsight is twenty-twenty;
Life is just a bowl of cherries; Shit or get off the pot, and You’re only young 
once. While proverbs continue to be cited in their standard wording in the 
modern age, they quite often get changed into so-called anti-proverbs that 
intentionally vary the wording of the traditional wisdom, as for example No
body is perfect; Curiosity grilled the cat, and Chaste makes haste. Journal-

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Yankee wisdom: American proverbs and the worldview of New England
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ists enjoy playing with proverbs in their headlines, and such altered prov-
erbs are also often found in advertisements to draw attention to a special 
product. Some of these anti-proverbs do become new proverbs. After all, 
there is no reason why the playful thought of Home is where the computer 
is should not be a new insight in a world where everybody is connected to a 
computer most of the time. 
What all of this means is that it is very difficult to speak of the Ameri-
can proverbs. Already in the early 1930s the American paremiologist Rich-
ard Jente was able to show that of a collection of 199 supposedly American 
proverbs only 10 or a mere 5% were in fact coined in the United States, 
among them Don’t kick a fellow when he is down; It pays to advertise, and