J. Paterson has summed up the purpose of Proverbs like this: "To subtract from the number of fools and add to the number of the wise" (quoted in A. K. Helmbold, "The Book of Proverbs," Merrill C. Tenney, editor, ZONDERVAN PICTORIAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BIBLE, vol. 4 [Zondervan, 1976], p. 917). Proverbs, then, is a handbook for the wise and the would-be wise.
There is no end to its application, for wisdom is, in short, the appropriate application of truth. Read it, pray over it, absorb it, live it.