This is an English language version of the author's book "Collection of Equivalent Proverbs in six Languages, Japanese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish," written in Japanese and published by Keibunsha of Tokyo, Japan, in 2015. Three hundred sets of equivalent proverbs are collected. Literary English translation is provided for each non-English proverb. Some explanations or comments follow each set of proverbs. For proverb lovers, the book will be an interesting reading. It will also serve as a good reference book to those who are trying to learn any of the six languages.

Proverbs are crystals of knowledge acquired from daily life and passed from generation to generation. The origin of these proverbs is usually not attributed to one specific person. It is interesting to note that equivalent proverbs exist in many languages, demonstrating the universal nature of humanity. This book provides a collection of equivalent proverbs in four Asian languages as well as English. Each of the Asian language proverbs is presented with its literal translation in English. Each proverb is compared and explained to point out similarities and differences in the languages due to the differences in culture. The book will be of interest for those who enjoy proverbs. It will also serve as a good reference to students of English as the second language or anyone who is trying to learn any of the five languages.

This Dictionary contains over 50,000 proverbs, in some 70 European languages and dialects, arranged in 2,500 sets. It is the fruits of over 40 years of collection and research, the only collection of proverbs on anything like this scale ever to be published anywhere in the world. Emanuel Strauss has trawled through innumerable collections of proverbs in all languages, from early printed books and rare items to the latest theses and journals, and grouped together many thousands of proverbs in sets of equivalent meaning. Comprehensive indexes for each language provide access to any proverb by way of its key words. A critical bibliography musters some 500 items, from incunabula to the current decade.

God and the Devil is a collection of proverbs on these two vast themes. It lists English proverbs and many equivalents in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and Latin. Although the equivalent proverbs in European languages are numerous, for various reasons, above all cultural, not all the proverbs are uniformly distributed: Proverbs are like butterflies, some are caught, some fly away.