Attribution to a Tradition
Crediting a saying to a culture, school or community when no individual author exists.
Some sayings genuinely have no author. Proverbs, folk sayings and much oral wisdom were shaped collectively over generations, so the honest credit is to the tradition: 'Yoruba proverb', 'Zen saying', 'Ashanti proverb', 'Talmudic maxim'.
This form is a real attribution, not a shrug. It tells the reader where the saying circulates, which is exactly the information an author's name would supply. It also protects against the common practice of assigning an unowned proverb to whichever famous person suits the mood.
Precision still matters. 'African proverb' covers a continent of more than a thousand languages and is close to meaningless; name the language or people where you can, and say where you found it. Citing the collection ('recorded in Owomoyela, Yoruba Proverbs, 2005') gives the reader a checkable trail.
Common mistake: converting a tradition attribution into a personal one because a named source feels more authoritative. Many 'Native American proverbs' circulating online are nineteenth-century literary inventions.
“"However far the stream flows, it never forgets its source." — Yoruba proverb, recorded in Owomoyela, Yoruba Proverbs (2005)”
Keep reading the glossary
A traditional saying that expresses a generally accepted truth — almost always anonymous.
Crediting a work or quotation to an unnamed author, and doing it honestly.
Assigning a quote to the wrong person — the most common error in quotation.
An organisation credited as the author of a work when no individual is named.