Non-PRO English to German Art/Literary Poetry & Literature Margaret Thatcher\'s biography

What she did very much enjoy were aphorisms and proverbs - plain truths, plainly put: 'Cleanliness is next to godliness' and 'If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing well'. She liked their confidence and conciseness even if sometimes she did not get the point. Why, she wondered as a child, say 'Look before you leap'? Wouldn't it be better to say 'Look before you cross'? (Telling this joke on herself in her memoirs, she observes with uncharacteristic self-deprecation, 'I already had a logical and indeed somewhat literal mind — perhaps I have not changed much in this regard.')