Proverbial Blues

“The world isn’t fair, Calvin.”
“I know, Dad, but why isn’t it ever unfair in my favor?”
― Bill Watterson, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury

Do you remember those days, in school, when your English teacher would ask you to write an essay on the proverb: ‘Time and tide wait for none’?

The next day you will be told that ‘Slow and steady wins the race’. No wonder then, now with all the contradictory proverbs, we see so many of our students, who have a phone in one of their hands, and another on their heads.

 

As you get a lil’ bit older, you finished school and got into a college. Then you were told that ‘love is blind’. Then that moment arrived, even before you knew it when you met that special person, you know who. In a classic romantic style, you also realised that it was love at first sight! This is not unfair but you get my point, don’t you?

 

P.S. Someday I’d like to do a proper comic but I guess I will need two approaches simultaneously: one, build a whole foundation of text or a narrative and two, dig out expressions that would build the story solely on the crispiest, and the most effortless visuals. All the best to me!

 

The images posted below are some of the most basic illustrations that I can get on some proverbs in English language that are contradictory to each other. Here’s the collection: 

 💬 The world is not really fair! We have more of these contradictory proverbs. Here is a comprehensive list:

•     Look before you leap.

    He who hesitates is lost.

•     If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

    Don’t beat your head against a stone wall.

•     Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

    Don’t cross the bridge until you come to it.

•     Two heads are better than one.

    Paddle your own canoe.

•     Haste makes waste.

    Time waits for no man.

•     A word to the wise is sufficient.

    Talk is cheap.

•     Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

    Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

•    Hitch your wagon to a star.

    Don’t bite off more that you can chew.

•     The squeaking wheel gets the grease.

    Silence is golden.

•     All good things come to him who waits.

    A stitch in time saves nine.

•     Attack is the best form of defense.

    He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.

•     Familiarity breeds contempt.

    Home is where the heart is.

•     Great minds think alike.

    Fools seldom differ.

•     Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep and you weep alone.

    Misery loves company.

•     Money is the root of all evil.

    Money makes the world go around.

•     Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

    Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.

•     Love makes the world go around.

    When poverty comes in the door, love flies out the window.

•     Love is blind.

    Love at first sight.

Note: In a world full of contradictions I would not be surprised if there are more of these adages and precepts. Please let me know if I have missed out any wisdom-filled, life-changing and contradictory proverbs.