Why do our well-known words of wisdom seem so wishy-washy? When grouped together, they flip-flop and shilly-shally. Hence comes this game:
how many PAIRS of propitious precepts, contradictory platitudes, and antipodal adages can you think of? Let two warring mottoes go mano a mano and let the-- ahem-- chips fall where they may. (If nothing else, we can get the clichés out of our systems so they won't as readily infiltrate our writing.)
Here are a few pairs to get you started:
"Too many cooks spoil the broth" BUT "Many hands make light work."
"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" BUT
(According to one definition of insanity) doing the same thing the same way over and over and expecting a different result."
"Birds of a feather flock together" BUT "Opposites attract."