A person acts what he is when he may do what he will

From Speak Well and Act Accordingly by Eleanor Parker. Some Anglo-Saxon proverbs from the Durham Proverbs:

A friend is useful, far or near; the nearer the better

In time of need, a man finds out his friends

No one can have too many friends

Sometimes people are most thirsty after drinking mead

No one can have a mouth full of flour and also blow on a fire

He who wants to catch a hart can’t worry about his horse

A person acts what he is when he may do what he will

Truth will make itself known

He never knows the pleasure of sweetness, who never tastes bitterness

He is blind in both eyes who does not look with the heart

One should not be too soon fearful, nor too soon joyful

Better to be often loaded than overloaded

The fuller the cup, the more carefully one should carry it

If you speak well, act accordingly

Necessity teaches many things

They do not quarrel who are not together

I enjoy them all and I think they are supportive of my hypothesis that proverbs, sayings, maxims, aphorisms and adages are a form of cultural programming (see also here), functioning almost as code in a program.

"No one can have a mouth full of flour and also blow on a fire" brought back a memory. Sometime in the mid-1970s in some town, perhaps Cambridge, somewhere in East Anglia. There on a Saturday, probably in the late spring as I recall it being unexpectedly comfortable weather. Perhaps there was a festival or other celebration going on. Regardless, there was some street performing troop working the crowds, generating laughter. One of their challenges, which I and a couple of friends accepted, was to eat two or three crackers and then whistle. I can testify it is just not possible, and that it is amusing to anyone who might be watching your best efforts.

I did not know then that I was testifying to an ancient Anglo-Saxon proverb.