Proverbs run wild
on this site

We've all heard the expressions "Close but no cigar," "Straight from the horse's mouth" and "A leopard can't change his spots." We rarely give a second thought, however, to the origins behind these seemingly nonsensical sayings. What do stogies have to do with chance? Who ever heard of a talking horse? Under what sort of hallucinatory circumstances would one entertain a fanciful scenario in which a leopard's coat rearranges itself?

Idiomsite.com lists dozens of popular phrases and deciphers the cryptic meanings behind many of these kooky expressions. For example, not many people know that early slot machines and carnival games offered cigars as prizes, hence the famous saying "Close but no cigar."

"Straight from the horse's mouth" is actually an aberration of a Biblical passage, Numbers 22:28, to be exact, in which God speaks through Balaam through a donkey. It begins "And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam ... " Turn to the book of Jeremiah for yet another passage which reads "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?" and you have an idea of how influential the Good Book has been to modern proverb.

"One picture is worth ten thousand words" is traced back to advertising executive Frederick R. Barnard who, in the Dec. 8, 1921 edition of "Printer's Ink," related an old Chinese expression which has been somewhat devalued over the years.

Worldofquotes.com is another site which may be of interest to those in search of quizzical adages. So thorough is the Web site that it breaks down thousands of historical quotes and proverbs by cultural origin.

You may also browse by topic. Worldofquotes.com's subject list, which includes such divergent themes as authority (22 alone in this category), men and women (270), and television (23) are so plentiful that the Web site lists each topic alphabetically. A search engine will even point you to a certain quote when you enter a phrase, author name or keywords.

A search for "procrastination," as in "this column is due tomorrow," reveals several wise expressions, including "You may delay, but time will not" and "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

Note: Web sites mentioned in this column were active at time of publication. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin neither endorses nor is responsible for their contents.