You can use it as an adjective by saying that something is "misleading." You can also use the past participle in the passive voice such as "I have been mislead." Both of these seem not to have a D.O. but the first isn't a verb and the second has an implied indirect object that is not specified. I can't think of a sentence off the top of my head using "to mislead" as a verb in the present tense without an object.

Misleading is correct in this sentence. Germs should be changed to 'gems'. You could say "Many proverbs contain gems of truth, and some are indeed profound, but they aren't reliable sources of knowledge and can be misleading." Or... "Many proverbs contain gems of truth, and some are indeed profound, but they aren't reliable sources of knowledge and one can be misled by them."

Hi Hyomin, It has to be misleading. If you were to say "people are mislead by proverbs," that would work. But the statement is saying that the proverbs are misleading others. Hope that helps:-)

No, "misleading" is the only correct possibility. Please revise the grammar for Passive Voice.