Book of Wise Sayings

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? Again, how many
have been benefited by the saying of the ancient Greek poet, that
evil communications corrupt good manners?albeit they had it
frequently before them in their school copy-books. Are the maxims
of morality useless, then, because they are so much disregarded?