Phraseology and Culture in English

Yankee wisdom: American proverbs and the worldview of New England
225
for example the weather sayings If you don’t like the weather in New Eng-
land, just wait a minute and it will change or Snow on Mount Mansfield 
[Vermont] and in six weeks the valley will be white. Emerson coined Hitch
your wagon to a star in 1870, but the origins of other proverbs used in this 
region, such as Money is flat and meant to be piled up and Out of old fields 
comes new corn, are much less clear. One is inclined to think that proverbs 
like Sap runs best after a sharp frost and The world is your cow, but you 
have to do the milking might have originated in Vermont on account of 
their rural imagery, but they could also have been coined in neighboring 
New Hampshire or, for that matter, in upstate New York (see Mieder 1986, 
1993: 173–192). Even the origin of the well-known proverb Good fences 
make good neighbors, used by Robert Frost in his 1914 poem “Mending 
Wall”, is not certain (see Mieder 2003b). Summarizing both the landscape 
of stone walls and the reserved nature of some New Englanders, the prov-
erb can fairly be considered a piece of wisdom befitting this particular agri-
cultural and cultural area. 
Having worked on Yankee proverbs for some three decades, I can at 
least offer the following sampler of proverbs that are not the run-of-the-mill 
proverbs in common use throughout the United States. These are proverbs 
which have been recorded in New England where they enjoy a considerable 
degree of familiarity and currency. As such, they may be understood to 
mirror the worldview or mentality of the average Yankee or New Eng-
lander. The proverbs represent traditional wisdom about life’s concerns and 
tribulations, and they continue to be employed as fitting commentaries on 
human relationships and social concerns: 
Ingenuity and Common Sense 
Drive the nail that will go. 
 
Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. 
 
The time to pick berries is when they are ripe. 
 
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 
 
It takes a crank to start the wheel. 
Independence and Perseverance 
The toughest skin will hold out the longest. 
 
Independence is better than riches. 
 
Let every man skin his own skunks. 
 
If you want to get to the top of the hill, you must go up it. 
 
Step by step the ladder is climbed. 

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226
Wolfgang Mieder 
Thriftiness and Economics 
Nothing should be bought that can be made or done without. 
 
An empty purse puts wrinkles in the face. 
 
A small home is better than a large mortgage. 
 
Economy is the poor man’s bank. 
 
Debt is the worst kind of poverty. 
Looks and Appearances 
You can’t tell whether an egg is good by looking at its shell. 
 
Beauty does not make the pot boil. 
You can never tell the depth of the well from the length of the han-
dle on the pump. 
 
All are not saints that go to church. 
 
You can’t judge a cow by her looks. 
Character and Reputation 
 
You can’t expect anything from a pig but a grunt. 
 
When all men say you are an ass, it is time to bray. 
 
If you haven’t enough to do, start cleaning your own backyard. 
 
Boston folks are full of notions. 
 
The man with no business is the busiest man. 
Ignorance and Wisdom 
 
A closed mouth makes a wise head. 
 
When the well is dry, we know the worth of water. 
 
There are many witty men whose brains can’t fill their bellies. 
 
Little minds run in the same ditch. 
 
Knowledge is the best insurance. 
Silence and Speech 
 
Talking will never build a stone wall or pay taxes. 
 
Turn your tongue seven times before speaking. 
 
Talk less and say more. 
 
A New Englander answers one question with another. 
 
One deed is worth a thousand speeches. 
Love and Marriage 
 
A good wife and health is a man’s best wealth. 
 
Matrimony is not a word but a sentence. 

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Yankee wisdom: American proverbs and the worldview of New England
227
 
It is well to be off with the old love before you are on with the new. 
 
Faults are thicker where love is thin. 
 
There’s no help for misfortune but to marry again. 
Opposites and Contradictions 
It’s better to be neat and tidy than to be tight and needy. 
 
An egg today is better than a hen tomorrow. 
 
A tinker makes two flaws in mending one. 
 
Hope is a good breakfast but a sad supper. 
 
An apple pie without cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze. 
Work and Laziness 
 
The hardest work is to do nothing. 
 
A work ill done must be done twice. 
 
The lazy dog leans to the wall to bark. 
 
Hard work never hurt anybody. 
 
The sleepy fox catches no chickens. 
Prudence and Advice 
 
A crooked road won’t get you far. 
 
An ounce of prudence is worth a pound of wit. 
Don’t throw away the bucket until you know if the new one holds 
water.
 
Live while you live, and then die and be done with it. 
 
If you must kick, kick toward the goal. 
Friends and Enemies 
 
Old shoes and old friends are best. 
 
Mud thrown is ground lost. 
 
Friendship can’t stand on one leg alone. 
 
Better a certain enemy than a doubtful friend. 
You have to summer and winter together before you know each
other.
Problems and Frustrations 
 
Don’t swallow the cow and worry with the tail. 
 
You can’t mow hay where the grass doesn’t grow. 
 
Other people’s eggs have two yolks. 

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228
Wolfgang Mieder 
You can’t keep trouble from coming, but you don’t have to give it a 
chair to sit on. 
 
You can’t get wool off a frog. 
Money and Wealth 
Make money honestly if you can, but make money. 
 
Money makes the mare go – but not the nightmare. 
 
Dirty hands make clean money. 
 
Nothing but money is sweeter than honey. 
 
Banks have no hearts. 
Chance and Fate 
 
You’ll catch your death just as sure as you live. 
 
There is small choice in rotten apples. 
 
Leaves have their time to fall. 
 
Even a clock that doesn’t run is right twice a day. 
 
Dunghills rise and castles fall. 
This small florilegium of seventy-five proverbs is at least in part represen-
tative of the general worldview of New Englanders. Some of these proverbs 
might well be known outside of this region, just as Yankees employ prov-
erbs that are in common use throughout the country. However, these prov-
erbs have a definite preponderance in New England, where they are fre-
quently heard in oral speech and also found in the mass media and in 
literary works. As accepted pieces of folk wisdom, they are indeed cultural 
signs of social norms and values and together with other expressions of 
attitudes and beliefs make up the composite worldview of New Englanders. 
Clearly not everybody who lives in New England is a true-blooded Yankee, 
but for the most part they buy into the value system of independence, inge-
nuity, thriftiness, and taciturnity expressed in this treasure trove of tradi-
tional Yankee folk wisdom. There certainly is a lot of practical wisdom in 
these common-sensical proverbs that are definitely part of the worldview or 
mentality of the people of New England. 

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