The first of these latter-day prophets was Joseph Smith, a man God called as a prophet in 1830 in much the same way as He chose the ancient prophets and apostlesâfrom among the most humble and unlikely of candidates.
adage. A usually pithy and familiar statement expressing an observation or principle generally accepted as wise or true: aphorism, byword, maxim, motto, proverb, saw, saying.
The problem is not with the adage, but with the language. In old English the term prove meant to test, not to confirm as it does today. So the adage really means: It is the exception that tests the rule.. If there is an exception, then there is no rule, or at least the rule is not total.