μετρέω ~ μετρήσω ~ ἐμέτρησα: measure, count
λαλέω ~ λαλήσω ~ ἐλάλησα: talk, speak
πράσσω ~ πράξω ~ ἔπραξα: do, manage, practice
ᾄδω ~ ἀείσομαι ~ ᾖσα: sing
ἀγαπάω ~ ἀγαπήσω ~ ἠγάπησα: love, be fond of
These are the proverbs (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):
Ἄμμον μετρεῖς.
Αἰγιαλῷ λαλεῖς.
Πρᾶττε δίκαια.
Ἄιδεις ὥσπερ εἰς Δῆλον πλέων.
Πᾶς γὰρ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἔργον ἀγαπᾷ.
And now, some commentary:
Ἄμμον μετρεῖς.
You're measuring sand.
This is a proverbial fool's errand; the idea is that you are counting grains of sand... which means you will never stop counting. From the root in Greek μετρ- we get all the meter and -metry words in English, like kilometer and geometry.
Αἰγιαλῷ λαλεῖς.
You're talking to the seashore.
This is another fool's errand: you're talking to the waves pounding against the seashore, i.e. to someone who cannot hear you. You can see the Greek root λαλ- in the -lalia words like glossolalia and echolalia.
Πρᾶττε δίκαια.
Do the right things.
This is one of the maxims that Stobaeus attributes to the Seven Sages. The word πρᾶττε is Attic; you will also see the form πρᾶσσε; the related verbal nouns πρᾶγμα and πρᾶξις give us the English words "pragmatic" and "praxis."
Ἄιδεις ὥσπερ εἰς Δῆλον πλέων.
You're singing as if sailing to Delos.
This referred to someone who is singing happily or just generally in a good mood. You can read about the island of Delos at Wikipedia, and the article even contains a reference to this proverb! The verb ᾄδω (ἀείδω) is related to the noun ᾠδή, which gives us English "ode."
Πᾶς γὰρ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἔργον ἀγαπᾷ.
Every (artist) loves his own artwork.
The phrase appears in Aristotle. What Aristotle then goes on to say is even more interesting: πᾶς γὰρ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἔργον ἀγαπᾷ μᾶλλον ἢ ἀγαπηθείη ἂν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἔργου ἐμψύχου γενομένου, "every artist loves his own artwork more than he would be loved by that artwork if it were to come to life." That does not bode well for Pygmalion!
And here's a random proverb too:
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