Proverb
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference
A proverb is an old or even ancient quotation, usually involving a moral or used to relate to a present situation. It is heavily related to folklore. (TNG: "The Naked Now").
Contents |
[edit] List of proverbs
[edit] Atrean
"A child born from parents who love each other will have nothing but goodness in his heart." (TNG: "Inheritance")
[edit] Bajoran
"He who studies evil is studied by evil." (DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil")
"If you're not fighting them, you're helping them." - In the Bajoran Resistance (DS9: "Rocks and Shoals")
[edit] Cardassian
"Confession is good for the soul." (DS9: "Tribunal")
"Enemies make dangerous friends." (DS9: "The Search, Part II")
[edit] Denobulan
"When in Fellebia, do as the Fellebians do." (ENT: "Unexpected")
[edit] Ferengi
The Rules of Acquisition performed a function similar to proverbs in Ferengi culture.
- The following were quoted as Ferengi sayings, but were not stated to be included in the Rules of Acquisition:
"Never ask when you can take." (DS9: "Babel")
"A good lie is easier to believe than the truth." (VOY: "Shattered")
[edit] Founders
"To become a thing is to know a thing. To assume its form is to begin to understand its existence." (DS9: "The Search, Part II", "Behind the Lines")
"The drop becomes the ocean...The ocean becomes the drop..." (DS9: "Behind the Lines")
[edit] Human
"A needle in a haystack." (TNG: "The Naked Now"; DS9: "Blaze of Glory")
"When in Rome... do as the Romans do." (TNG: "Justice"; DS9: "Let He Who Is Without Sin...")
"Fortune favors the bold." (DS9: "Favor the Bold")
"As healthy as a horse" (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday")
"Easy as pie." (VOY: "Future's End")
"Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely." (TNG: "Hide and Q"; TOS: "Patterns of Force")
"You don't kick a man when he's down." (ENT: "Judgment")
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." (TOS: "Friday's Child"; VOY: "Warhead")
"No good deed goes unpunished." (ENT: "The Andorian Incident")
"Blood is thicker than water." (VOY: "Survival Instinct")
"Even the eagle must know when to sleep." (VOY: "Resolutions")
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." (DS9: "In the Pale Moonlight")
"May you live in interesting times." (VOY: "The Cloud")
"A stranger is a friend you just haven't met yet." (VOY: "Fair Haven")
"Home is wherever you happen to be." (VOY: "Deadlock")
"The devil finds work for idle hands." (VOY: "Good Shepherd")
"Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime." (ENT: "Marauders")
"In for a penny, in for a pound" (TNG: "Pen Pals")
"All good things must come to an end." (TNG: "All Good Things..."; DS9: "Business as Usual")
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." (DS9: "Move Along Home")
"The early bird gets the worm." (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds")
- This was transformed into "The early bird gets the gagh" by the EMH when adressing B'Elanna Torres (VOY: "Drone")
"Best defense is a good offense." (VOY: "In the Flesh")
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." (ENT: "Cold Front")
"A watched pot never boils." (TNG: "Timescape")
"The proof is in the pudding." (ENT: "Rogue Planet")
"Two heads are better than one." (DS9: "Bar Association")
Various Latin phrases and Biblical allusions served a function similar to proverbs in Human society.
[edit] Jem'Hadar
"Obedience brings victory." (DS9: "Rocks and Shoals")
"Victory is life" (DS9: "by Inferno's Light")
[edit] Klingon
"Four thousand throats may be cut in one night by a running man with a knife." (TOS: "Day of the Dove")
"Only a fool fights in a burning house." (TOS: "Day of the Dove")
"Revenge is a dish that is best served cold." (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
"You cannot loosen a man's tongue with root beer." (DS9: "Rapture")
Various sayings of Kahless served a function similar to proverbs in Klingon culture.
[edit] Mikhal Traveler
"My course is as elusive as a shadow across the sky." (VOY: "Darkling")
[edit] Romulan
"Never turn your back on a Breen." (DS9: "By Inferno's Light")
[edit] Talaxian
"Good news has no clothes." (VOY: "Lineage")
"When the road before you splits in two, take the third path." (VOY: "Author, Author")
"The dream dreams the dreamer." (VOY: "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy")
[edit] Vulcan
"Only Nixon could go to China." (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
"One man can summon the future." (ENT: "United")
Among mirror universe Vulcans, this saying was "One man cannot summon the future." (TOS: "Mirror, Mirror")
[edit] Xindi
"It's easier to count the stars in the sky than it is for an aquatic to reach a decision." (ENT: "The Council")
"Dealing with reptilians is like bargaining with the sun. You make no progress, and you come away burned." (ENT: "Azati Prime")
"Patience is for the dead." (ENT: "Azati Prime")
[edit] Other and of unknown origin
"Healthy as a Rigellian ox" (TNG: "The Schizoid Man")
"It's lonely at the top." - Claimed to be an Arachnian saying by Queen Arachnia.
"Stay out of harm's way." - Claimed to be a Chinese expression by Harry Kim, but disputed by Tom Paris
"Put the shoe on the right foot first, but put the left foot first into the bathtub." - quoted by Jadzia Dax while under the influence of Saltah'na energy spheres. (DS9: "Dramatis Personae")
"There's no time like the past." - In use by crews of 29th century timeships. (VOY: "Relativity")
"The early bird that hesitates gets wormed"
- A perversion of "The Early bird gets the worm", stated by the Minosian peddler. Since he had an adaptive design and learned from each encounter, it seems that his incomplete knowledge of this proverb stemmed from his earlier encounter with the Federation starship USS Drake.
"Hot as Vulcan" (TOS: "Amok Time")
"Little birds in their nest get along" (VOY: "Real Life")
- This would seem to be a 24th century variation on "Birds in their little nests agree"
