Experience
Bought wit is best.
Wit once bought is worth twice taught.
Hang a dog on a crabtree, and he’ll never love verjuice.
A burnt child dreads the fire.
Fear is so imaginative that it starts even at the ghost of a remembered danger. “A scalded dog dreads cold water” (French, Italian, Spanish).555 “A dog which has been beaten with a stick is afraid of its shadow” (Italian).556 “Whom a serpent has bitten, a lizard alarms” (Italian).557 “One who has been bitten by a serpent is afraid of a rope” (Hebrew). “The man who has been beaten with a firebrand runs away at the sight of a firefly” (Cingalese). “He that has been wrecked shudders even at still water” (Ovid).558
Experience is the mistress of fools.
She keeps a dear school, says Poor Richard; but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that. “An ass does not stumble twice over the same stone” (French).559 “Unfairly does he blame Neptune who suffers shipwreck a second time” (Publius Syrus).560
He that will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the rock.—Cornish.
Better learn frae your neebor’s scathe than frae your ain.—Scotch.
Wise men learn by others’ harms, fools by their own, like Epimetheus, the Greek personification of after-wit.561 “Happy he who is made wary by others’ perils” (Latin).562
Old birds are not to be caught with chaff.
“Old crows are hard to catch” (German).563 “New nets don’t catch old birds” (Italian).564
I’m ower auld a cat to draw a strae [straw] afore my nose.—Scotch.
That is, I am not to be gulled. A kitten will jump at a straw drawn before her, but a cat that knows the world is not to be fooled in that way.
Don’t tell new lies to old rogues.
He that cheats me ance, shame fa’ him; if he cheats me twice, shame fa’ me.—Scotch.
It is a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.
The French have a humorous equivalent for this proverb, growing out of the following story:—A young rustic told his priest at confession that he had broken down a neighbour’s hedge to get at a blackbird’s nest. The priest asked if he had taken away the young birds. “No,” said he, “they were hardly grown enough. I will let them alone until Saturday evening.” No more was said on the subject, but when Saturday evening came, the young fellow found the nest empty, and readily guessed who it was that had forestalled him. The next time he went to confession he had to tell something in which a young girl was partly concerned. “Oh!” said his ghostly father; “how old is she?” “Seventeen.” “Good-looking?” “The prettiest girl in the village.” “What is her name? Where does she live?” the confessor hastily inquired; and then he got for answer the phrase which has passed into a proverb, “À d’autres, dénicheur de merles!” which may be paraphrased, “Try that upon somebody else, Mr. filcher of blackbirds.”
When an old dog barks look out.
“An old dog does not bark for nothing” (Italian).565 “There is no hunting but with old hounds” (French).566
Live and learn.
The langer we live the mair ferlies [wonders] we see.—Scotch.
Adversity makes a man wise, not rich.
“Wind in the face makes a man wise” (French).567
A smooth sea never made a skilful mariner.
It is hard to halt before a cripple.
It is hard to counterfeit lameness successfully in presence of a real cripple. “He who is of the craft can discourse about it.” (Italian).568 “Don’t talk Latin before clerks” (French),569 or “Arabic in the Moor’s house” (Spanish).570
The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
“Do not judge of the ship while it is on the stocks” (Italian).571
War’s sweet to them that never tried it.
Footnotes
555 Chat échaudé craint l’eau froide.
556 Il can battuto dal bastone, ha paura dell’ ombra.
557 Chi della serpe è punto, ha paura della lucertola.
558 Tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas.
559 Un âne ne trébuche pas deux fois sur la même pierre.
560 Improbe Neptunum accusat qui iterum naufragium facit.
561 Ὁϛ ἐπεί κακὸν ἒχε νόησε.
562 Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.
563 Alte Krähen sind schwer zu fangen.
564 Nuova rete non piglia uccello vecchio.
565 Cane vecchio non baia indarno.
566 Il n’est chasse que de vieux chiens.
567 Vent au visage rend un homme sage.
568 Chi è dell’arte, può ragionar della.
569 Il ne faut pas parler latin devant les clercs.
570 In casa del moro no hablar algarabia.
571 Non giudicar la nave stando in terra.