Ninth—Do not put an ice cold bit into a horse's mouth in winter unless you want him to have toothache and become ill.
Tenth—Be as careful of your horse's skin as of your own.
PARADOX PROVERBS.
These Pampered Children of Wisdom and Experience Find It So Difficult to Agree That
if They Had Teeth and Claws They Might Fight It Out in
the Manner of the Kilkenny Cats.
A proverb is defined in one of the more popular dictionaries of our language as "a brief, pithy saying, condensing in witty or striking form the wisdom of experience."
But experiences vary and often lead to different results, so that of proverbs it may be said that "what is one man's meat is another man's poison." It is as futile for a man to live his life in accordance with proverbs as it is for twenty cooks to collaborate in the making of a broth that will please the palates of all.
The truth is, proverbs are just as likely to disagree as are physicians. Here are a few that have agreed to disagree:
A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.