He quoted a famous saying in his speech.
"Haste makes waste" is a Japanese proverb.
格言 is a formal maxim often traced to a specific thinker or text, while 諺 is an anonymous, traditional folk saying passed down through common speech.
格言 is a maxim often attributed to a specific person or text, whereas 古語 as 'old saying' is a more general, anonymous old expression.
legal maxim
From 格 (standard, rule) + 言 (word, speech). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the compound has been used to mean a standard or model saying since classical Chinese.