proverb

"If we respond to a proverb (by denying its wisdom or preferring the insight of a contrary proverb), we imagine someone who might have said it, and may imply that the experience that led to it was partial: we treat is as a German or Russian proverb, say, and imagine the sort of 'typical' German or Russian from whom it might have emanated" (MB: Creation of a Prosaics, p. 133).