Proverbs have lasted for thousands of years, probably because they’re so memorable. Some are short and concise, like “Practice makes perfect” and “Haste makes waste,” while others use a poetic language such as metaphors, repetition, and rhymes. The metaphor “Out of the frying pan and into the fire” is easy to visualize when you are faced with a difficult situation that just got even worse. The repetition of the consonant “t” makes it easy to remember “It takes two to tango.” The rhyme “When the cat’s away, the mice will play” comes to mind as soon as the boss leaves on vacation, and the repetition of the structure in “ Once bitten, twice shy” makes this an extremely catchy phrase.