Proverbs about good deeds are apt folk sayings, phrases with great historical stability, passing from generation to generation.
The history of the origin of proverbs
A proverb is a product of oral folk art, generated by the elements of oral speech. It reflected the features of national life, ways of managing, family relations, moral norms, assessments of behavior, life rituals. After all, the art of the proverb arose initially in the speech of peasants, carpenters, coachmen, blacksmiths, hunters, coopers. Pushkin said that he learned the language from Moscow prosvirens, that is, by listening to sayings, proverbs that sprinkled their speech with mallows - women who baked ritual church bread.
What attracts in proverbs
The proverb captures a life observation and gives it, using a figurative form, an expanded three-dimensional meaning. When we say: “They cut the forest - the chips fly”, we see in front of us a very specific picture of the work of a lumberjack. But we mean something else: decisive, even fatal actions will inevitably affect those who are not involved in them.
We just love proverbs about good deeds because the truth that can be extracted from them cannot be far-fetched or fake. It is directly born of life practice, based on the experience of more than one generation of people, whose tireless work creates the continuity of the life stream. And the same proverb can be applied to many everyday, and not only everyday, situations and cases.
Capacitive folk parables
Small folklore forms concentrate the main ideological concepts of the people's consciousness as they have evolved and existed over the centuries, accompanied by numerous historical trials. These are basic, supporting maxims, ideas about life and death, truth and lies, proverbs about good deeds, about justice and humanity.
"A good deed is strong" - says the proverb. And this conviction is colorfully detailed: "A good deed does not burn, does not sink." When it is said about a good deed that it lives for two centuries, of course, it does not mean a chronological unit - a hundred years, but the time allotted to a person. And this means that the memory of a worthy deed will outlive a person for a long time. And what's more, this memory is so firmly embedded in life that "the dog will not forget the good old."
Pillars of folk morality
Proverbs about kindness and good deeds depict a good charitable deed as something natural, lying in human nature: a good deed is not hidden from anyone, but it does not need hype, ostentatious praise: “A good deed is itselfpraises, that is, it speaks for itself. And, unlike dashing (evil), walks quietly.
"A good deed multiplies good", serves to spread and strengthen it. "A good person teaches good." Such a person is compared to a source of light.
Good done for people brings respect and honor to the one who did it - this is how proverbs teach about a person and his good deeds. No wonder they always find a worthy place for a good person - the red corner of the hut.
“Whoever does good, God will repay him” – behind these similar sayings is the conviction that a good deed will certainly evoke a symmetrical response. But that's not all: doing good deeds means making your own destiny happier. "To do good is to amuse yourself." But for those who do no good to anyone, life is bad.
Good - bad, evil
A good deed opposes evil, which (and proverbs see it very sharply) is quite firmly rooted in the world. Let's make a reservation right away that the semantics of the word "thin" has changed. If for our contemporary, obsessed with the problems of losing weight, this is the definition of the ideal state of one's own physical build, then the literary Russian language still remembers that thin is a synonym for bad, evil.
"It's good that they are looking for a treasure, but it's bad at hand." There are many such statements, where good and bad act as a pair of antagonists. They have a deep subtext: if you think about it, you can’t help but seethat evil, evil prevails where indifference, lack of will, carelessness is manifested, it is always at hand, while a good deed requires effort. "Seek good, but bad will come by itself." And if the mind is not enough for a good deed, the proverb assures, then it will be enough for a bad one.
If virtue must be sought, as wise folk sayings teach, then it can be discovered in a dashing person. “And in the chaff (in the garbage left after threshing) there are grains.”
What can a word
Proverbs and sayings about good deeds also include benevolent words, that is, a spoken word is equated to an effective deed. And by all means to a specific action, precisely indicated. "A kind word will open the iron gates." A friendly word will put a staff in your hands, it is able to build a house, and an evil one can destroy it. An affectionate word, by the way, is likened to rain in a dry season. In the ability to find and bestow words of support on another, the proverb reveals the true value of a person, his we alth - and the homeless will become rich if he can find a kind word.
Proverbs about good deeds for children
The richest composition of these verbal treasures - proverbs was formed for everyone: the old, the small, the rich and the poor alike. The child heard and memorized, imbued with statements, the meaning of which in its entirety, perhaps, could be revealed to him only in adulthood. Rhythmically organized, permeated with consonances, the form of the utterance is called upon to be imprinted in the memory that will carry itin a year. Actually, this was the only possible way to preserve the proverb as a short parable, a means of transmitting information in those days when literacy was not mass. The proverb really should "walk" in people.
The proverb can be easily remembered in childhood also because it often has a very bright, even biting figurativeness, ironic or playful intonation: “Good for a good, and a rib in half for a bad one” assures that a good dog is better than a thin one man.
There are proverbs about good deeds and deeds with a clear instructive didactic bias. You can’t say about them that they were intended specifically for children or youth. The advice contained in them, expressed in time, is always and for everyone appropriate: “It is never too late to do a good deed.”
There are also those among them who directly indicate what should be learned from an early age - good. Because then the worst will not come to mind. Another proverbial warning: do not praise yourself for doing a good deed. Let children learn with their mother's milk that a good deed useful to people will not remain without a reward.
Languages are different, but the meaning is close
If we consider the proverbs of different peoples about good deeds, the mentality of which is formed in other natural and historical conditions, we will see that proverbs everywhere and at all times raise beneficial deeds.
- The English say: "A good name is better than we alth."
- Chinese proverbs are expressed more emphatically and definitely, stating thatthe evil will never overcome the good, and that a good man will never be poor. A good deed is a manifestation of strength, because heaven helps a good person.
- Armenian claims that even a sword cannot do what bread can.
- "Not all people are evil devils" - they say in Japan, and this is reminiscent of the well-known Russian proverb, which says that the world is not without good people. But the statement about good done in secret and having received a clear reward will make us think a little. Yes, however, this is about the fact that appreciation for a good deed is guaranteed.
- But the Indian proverb about a good deed looks like a story compressed to one sentence, a folded dramatic plot: “He who does not respond with anger to anger saves both himself and the other.”
However, speaking about the similarities and differences of proverbs from different parts of the world, it should be borne in mind that the translation involuntarily smoothes the character of the original and, in search of identical phraseology, slightly Russifies it.
