The collection / 1,755 fragments
Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.
Meaning: A demanding undertaking needs means capable of supporting it. The tiny eggshell set against the sea pictures an unsuitable arrangement, rather than proving that every ambitious plan or modest beginning must fail.
Meaning: The saying tells someone to rub a sore eye with an elbow. The awkward instruction can be read as an indirect way of discouraging rubbing rather than a practical method.
Meaning: The phrase calls for sustained practical effort on a task. Elbow grease is figurative hard work, not a substance or a guarantee that more effort will solve every difficulty.
Meaning: Accepting a damaging arrangement may be worse than leaving an opportunity unfilled. Consider the costs of a poor fit instead of treating occupancy or participation as success by itself.
Meaning: Financial worry can show in a person’s expression. The empty purse pictures a shortage of resources, and wrinkles give the strain a visible form.
Meaning: Money in your possession is not necessarily money you are free to use. If it belongs to someone else or is already owed, a full purse may conceal a lack of available resources.
Meaning: A person who speaks loudly or confidently may have little substance behind the noise. Judge what is said by its evidence and usefulness rather than its volume.
Meaning: The saying combines a reminder that things finish with a playful double meaning of “end.” Its joke lightens the observation rather than providing a precise rule about how every experience concludes.
Meaning: Continuing through a difficulty can keep a person from treating it as final defeat. The saying values endurance, without proving that persistence guarantees success or that changing course means someone has failed.
Meaning: The saying praises England as an ideal place for women. Its sweeping national compliment leaves individual circumstances and the standard of comparison unstated.
Meaning: The saying treats a surplus as unnecessary when a need has already been met. Its useful question is whether extra provision serves a purpose, while reserves, sharing and uncertain future needs may make more than the immediate minimum worthwhile.
Meaning: A situation with no margin left can make every new need feel impossible to meet. The saying points to the strain of exhausted resources, rather than supplying a rule about how much is enough.
Meaning: The saying prefers a position others envy to one they pity, treating envy as a sign of apparent advantage. That comparison exposes a concern with social standing rather than proving that either reaction accurately describes someone’s life.
Meaning: Resenting another person’s advantage does not by itself improve your own situation. Notice what you need or can learn instead of treating someone else’s success as a resource you have lost.
Meaning: A flattering account may omit the faults and difficulties needed for an accurate picture. The epitaph comparison warns about selective praise, without making every memorial dishonest or treating harshness as a guarantee of truth.
Meaning: A capable person can exercise judgement without being told every step. The saying values competent discretion, but silence is not a substitute for explaining the purpose, essential constraints or information that the person cannot otherwise know.
Meaning: A conflict that leaves no one unharmed has a terrible cost even if someone claims victory. The saying directs attention to what everyone loses when a contest becomes destructive.
Meaning: Carelessly giving up resources can leave someone working hard to recover even a small amount. The hands discard what the feet must later pursue.
Editorial context: This saying’s extreme comparison concerns self-importance. Self-knowledge does not require low self-worth, ignoring strengths or accepting disrespect.
Meaning: Knowing one’s own limitations can reduce self-importance. The proverb gives humility an exaggerated form; it need not mean that accurate self-understanding requires low self-worth, disregard for strengths or constant criticism of oneself.
Meaning: The saying links a red evening and grey morning with a fair day. It combines two sky descriptions into one favourable expectation.
Meaning: Trying to please everyone can demand more effort than one person can reasonably provide. The need to rise early is an exaggeration that questions universal approval as a workable goal.
Meaning: When a task is vaguely assigned to everyone, each person may assume someone else will do it. Shared responsibility works better when the next action and its owner are clear.
Meaning: The saying combines individual self-interest with a shared appeal to God. It can express a tense situation in which people look after themselves, but it does not justify abandoning others or suggest that shared needs can be left entirely to divine care.
Meaning: Each person or undertaking should have a basis that can support its responsibilities. The tub standing on its own bottom pictures that stability, without making independence a demand to refuse cooperation or needed help.