proverb

Prof Dutt sums up what is happening in the words of an old proverb: "Bow to the ruler, and then go your own way."

He cites a South African proverb: “If the good doctor can’t cure you, find the less good doctor.”

You may be familiar with the weather proverb that March "comes in like a lion, out like a lamb".

On a lace vintage doily, Simpson embroidered the Japanese proverb “Fall seven times, stand up eight,” a fitting metaphor for her metamorphosis as an artist.

This is not uncommon in fundamentalist Christian households, where the biblical proverb about "sparing the rod" is regularly wielded to justify corporal punishment.