And here are two more proverbs.
As soon as the aircraft lets you down (e.g. by failing its engine) it's no longer yours but belongs to the insurance company.
It's better to have a good landing (under control, at the lowest possible airspeed) in a bad field, than a bad landing in a good field.
Fly it - Point it - Sort it
I like it! Far easier than a five-step approach, or a circuit with different checkpoints and heights. Keep it simple!
Personally what I do in a PFL is pick a field quickly that I know I can easily make. I then fly whatever circuit is necessary to align myself with that field and more or less into the wind. I then use flaps and side slips to get rid of whatever excess height I have.
For starters, this means that you don't have to worry about careful trimming for best glide speed straight away. After all, I'm trying to get the plane down in one piece, not make a record gliding flight in the process. Obviously you're not going to maintain cruise speed all the way down, but just doing one or two turns on the trim wheel will give you a speed which is reasonably close to best glide, and that's good enough.
The other thing that is implied is that sorting out the problem and attempting a restart is *only* attempted when you've got the plane under control and you've got a plan to get the aircraft down. Only then, and only if you have spare mental capacity and time, do you attempt a restart.
And obviously that restart is from memory, not from a paper checklist. The planes we typically fly are so simple that if you have fuel, air and ignition, the engine should run. If it doesn't, well, there's nothing you can do about it.
Fuel: On the correct tank (switch tanks if possible/able/needed), fuel pump on, mixture rich.
Air: Alternate air/carb heat on, full throttle
Ignition: Check and cycle the magnetos.
If the engine is fully stopped (not windmilling), try to restart by air start or with the starter. (Note that this really only applies to aerobatics flight. If you have a full engine stop - not windmilling - during cruise flight, it's almost 100% certain that you have a mechanical failure of some sort that will prevent the engine from turning.)