Written by the foremost authority on proverbs, this reference gives high school students, undergraduates, and general readers a concise yet comprehensive overview of proverbs in world culture.

The volume begins with definitions and classifications of proverbs and a discussion of their origin and dissemination.

Introduction Definition and Classification Definition Attempts Proverb Markers and Meanings Origin and Dissemination of Proverbs Traditional Forms Related to the Proverb The International Type System of Proverbs Types of International Proverb Collections Major Anglo-American Proverb Collections Various Specialized Proverb Collections Selected Bibliography Examples and Texts Big Fish Eat Little Fish A Classical Proverb about Human Nature First Come, First Served A Medieval Legal Proverb from the Millers The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree A Proverb's Way from Germany to America The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian A Slanderous Proverbial Stereotype Good Fences Make Good Neighbors An Ambiguous Proverb of Relationships A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words An Advertising Slogan Turned American Proverb Proverbs from Different Cultures and Languages Authentic American Proverbs Regional American Proverbs Native American Proverbs African American Proverbs Selected Bibliography Scholarship and Approaches Proverb Journals, Essay Volumes, and Bibliographies Proverb Collections and Future Paremiography Comprehensive Overviews of Paremiology Empiricism and Paremiological Minima Linguistic and Semiotic Considerations Performance (Speech Acts) in Social Contexts Issues of Culture, Folklore, and History Politics, Stereotypes, and Worldview Sociology, Psychology, and Psychiatry Use in Folk Narratives and Literature Religion and Wisdom Literature Pedagogy and Language Teaching Iconography: Proverbs as Art Mass Media and Popular Culture Selected Bibliography Contexts A Man of Fashion Never Has Recourse to Proverbs Lord Chesterfield's Tilting at Proverbial Windmills Early to Bed and Early to Rise From Proverb to Benjamin Franklin and Back Behind the Clouds the Sun Is Shining Abraham Lincoln's Proverbial Fight Against Slavery Conventional Phrases Are a Sort of Fireworks Charles Dickens's Proverbial Language Make Hell While the Sun Shines Proverbial War Rhetoric of Winston S. Churchill Man Is a Wolf to Man Proverbial Dialectics in Bertolt Brecht Benjamin Franklin's The Way to Wealth Proverb Poems and Popular Songs Proverbs in Caricatures, Cartoons, and Comics Proverbs and the World of Advertising Proverbs as Headlines and Slogans Selected Bibliography Bibliography Bibliographies Proverb Journals Major Proverb Studies Multilingual Proverb Collections Bilingual Proverb Collections Anglo-American Proverb Collections Regional and Thematic Proverb Collections Web Resources Glossary Index