This study is to investigate the awareness and norms among Koreans of their speech in proverbs and to investigate the principle of speech. Proverbs on speech contain awareness, attitude and value of Koreans, thus can be useful in speech education. This study extracted proverbs on speech from Korean Standard Unabridged Dictionary, analyzed and categorized their awareness and norms, through which this study obtained the principle of speech. The obtained principle of speech is as follows: first, it is observed that Koreans consider one’s speaking that coincides with his speech and action as most ideal. Second, Koreans consider attentively listening to the speaker, whoever the person is, as the most ideal attitude of a listener, but as a good way of listening, they judge whether the content of the speech is worthwhile. Third, Koreans consider speaking appropriately following the situational context as a good way of speaking. Fourth, Koreans consider people’s relationships as important, and so speaking that can maintain a good relationship as a good way of speaking. Fifth, Koreans consider keeping good manners for the other person while speaking and using words that are considerate of others as a good way of speaking.