More contradictory proverbs?

It seems to me that some things, which are said for effect, tend to become proverbs and end up giving an impression of being in contradiction of other proverbs. People do say things to suit the psychology of the other person in order to get them to do what is necessary AND, when you deal with people, you do not always say what you mean. I know it seems to defeat the very purpose of communication but what can you do? The human race may be 'sapient' but totally lacks common-sense. (Another of those inherent stupidities of communication. You call a thing 'common' sense when you know full well that there are few things more uncommon in this world.)

I may be wrong (NO! I am NOT always wrong!) but it seems to me that some of these proverbs are more 'contrarian' proverbs - in the sense that they were intended to ensure that the recipient did the exact opposite of what you told him to do. Take "Never judge a book by the cover" for example. Everyone and his aunt knows that it is flatly against every single instinct that humans possess. Whatever else of the bestial nature has been rubbed out, what has not is the idea that anything that looks different is an enemy. So, where does one get off talking about not judging things by looks?

In all probability, the chap who first used it was talking to his recalcitrant teenage son, who would, naturally, do the opposite of what his parents told him to do. The 'sapient' father, of course, told the son to do the opposite of what he (the father) wanted him (the son) to do and less sapient successors took it as literal advice. Not that anyone in all the subsequent generations ever paid more than lip service to it - as witness the epidemic of fairness creams raging through the world.

So, yes, "Clothes make a man" comes closer to a literally meant proverb, though it needs more elaboration nowadays. One needs to add hair-styling gels, deodorants, six-packs, and God knows what else, to the mix to make the man. Almost the only thing that is totally redundant is character. Which means that the chap who said "When Wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when Health is lost, something is lost; when Character is lost, everything is lost" was also probably a contrarian and meant to say, "When Character is lost, nothing is lost; when Health is lost, something is lost; when Wealth is lost, everything is lost" - for, after all, without wealth, how can you get all those things that maketh a man?

So, then, what price 'All that glitters is not gold', you ask? Maybe so, but you can make quite a living selling gold bricks. They do say that "A fool and his money are easily parted" AND "A sucker is born every minute", so it does not matter whether what glitters is gold or not. (I KNOW, for I was the sucker of my birth minute). If you can make the world go around on pieces of paper, you can do it on gold bricks even if the contents do not match the glitter.

P.S: I owe a lot of this post to Titli's comment. As usual the (mis)representation is all mine.