One of the original collections, this contains extensive array of Proverbs collected from around the world. Proverbs are thought to contain the essence of wisdom. Wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from making mistakes. So proverbs may largely record of someone's mistakes, distilled to a single phrase, and turned into an example for posterity. They are, thus, the briefest possible condensation of humanity's collective history. Or maybe not.

With that as a thought, I would not like to have been the person who served as an example for the Malayan Proverb, Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.

This is, by the way, the most multi-cultural of all of the collections. --Steve