τιμάω ~ τιμήσω ~ ἐτίμησα: honor, revere, prize
πράσσω ~ πράξω ~ ἔπραξα: do, manage, practice
τίθημι ~ θήσω ~ ἔθηκα: put, establish, bring about
σπεύδω ~ σπεύσω ~ ἔσπευσα: hurry, hasten
ἅπτω ~ ἅψω ~ ἧψα: kindle; fasten, engage
These are the proverbs (and there are always more proverbs at the blog):
Ἑστίαν τίμα.
Πρᾶττε ἀμετανοήτως.
Πλάνη βίον τίθησι σωφρονέστερον.
Τί με σπεύδοντα καὶ αὐτὸν ὀτρύνεις;
Μὴ πρὸς λέοντα δορκὰς ἅψομαι μάχης.
And now, some commentary:
Ἑστίαν τίμα.
Honor Hestia / the hearth-fire.
This is one of the so-called Delphic maxims recorded by Stobaeus. As usual, the maxim takes the form of an imperative: τίμα (uncontracted form: τίμαε). Compare another saying about the goddess of the hearth that you saw in a previous post: Ἀφ' Ἑστίας ἀρχόμενοι. You can read about both Hestia and Vesta (Roman hearth-goddess) at Wikipedia.
Πρᾶττε ἀμετανοήτως.
Act without regret.
This is another one of the Delphic maxims, with the Attic form of the verb, πρᾶττε, as opposed to πρᾶσσε. The adverb ἀμετανοήτως literally means "not-after-thinking," ἀ-μετα-νοή-τως, from μετά-νοια. Sometimes μετάνοια is a positive thing, as when you change your mind, realizing that you have made a mistake. It can also be something with a more negative, painful quality, like regret or repentance, which is the sense here.
Πλάνη βίον τίθησι σωφρονέστερον.
Blundering results in a more reasonable life.
In other words, you learn from making mistakes (or mis-steps, if you take πλάνη literally). If you've never thought about the enormous range of idiomatic meanings of the verb τίθημι, just take a look at Logeion. Here the sense is to set up, establish, bring about, etc. The noun πλάνη also has a range of meaning, from the literal wandering or blundering around to the metaphorical idea of making mistakes, something like the way "erring" works in English. This is one of the iambic sayings of Menander; here's the meter marked:
Πλάνη ~ βίον || τίθη~σι σω||φρονέ~στερον.
Τί με σπεύδοντα καὶ αὐτὸν ὀτρύνεις;
Why are you urging me when I myself am also eager?
The words come from Homer's Iliad. Teucer, who was both the half-brother of Ajax but also the nephew of King Priam, fought on the Greek side in the war. As Teucer is killing one Trojan after another on the battlefield, Agamemnon urges him to keep going, offering him various prizes, but Teucer rebukes him with these words; he doesn't need Agamemnon to provide incentives because he is already eager for victory.
Μὴ πρὸς λέοντα δορκὰς ἅψομαι μάχης.
Being a deer, I will not engage in battle against a lion.
This saying appears in all the major Greek proverb collections, but it is not attested in extant Greek literature. It sure sounds like it should belong to some Aesop's fable that, alas, did not get written down. The use of μή shows how the future is conceived of in terms of possibility or, in this case, negative possibility: I do not want to, I would not, etc.
And here's a random proverb and a random LOLCat too :
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