Book of Wise Sayings

William Alexander Clouston (1843-1896) was a famous British Folklorist. He contributed to valuable studies combining Eastern traditional literature with Norse and Western Folklore. His works include: The Book of Noodles: Stories of Simpletons; or, Fools and Their Follies (1888), Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers (1890) and Book of Wise Sayings (1893). "Cynics may ask, how many have profited by the innumerable proverbs and maxims of prudence which have been current in the world time out of mind? They will say that their only use is to repeat them after some unhappy wight has "gone wrong." When, for instance, a man has played "ducks and drakes" with his money, the fact at once calls up the proverb which declares that "wilful waste leads to woful want"; but did not the "waster" know this well-worn saying from his early years downwards? What good, then, did it do him?"