Words worth understanding
Start with the thought in plain English. Then examine its imagery, practical application and limitations.
2,058 selected entries have editorial explanations. An explanation is not independent authentication of an attribution. Start with the individually source-checked classics ↗
proverb · Traditional
A conspicuous position can receive pressure from several directions. The hills exposed to wind picture the demands that visibility may attract, without proving that prominence must cause a fall or that every request deserves an immediate response.
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Public distinction or a demanding responsibility may bring effort that conflicts with an easy life. The bedfellows image highlights a possible tension, without making exhaustion proof of merit or requiring someone to seek recognition.
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Hope can help you begin, but it cannot replace the practical result you need by the end. Let optimism support action rather than become the only thing sustaining a plan.
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The saying imagines hard work keeping hunger away. Read it as an ideal of secure livelihood rather than proof that effort alone prevents poverty or need.
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An arrangement should serve the purpose for which it is maintained. The cats-and-mice image questions keeping more than is useful, without reducing people or living creatures to a measure of productivity.
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Avoiding a manageable task can create more work later. The paradox about idle people taking pains criticises a particular pattern of avoidance, rather than proving that rest or limited capacity is a fault.
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The saying warns that neglecting available work can contribute to material difficulty. Its absolute link between inactivity and poverty is too narrow to explain people’s circumstances.
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Unoccupied time can become an opportunity for harmful behaviour. The root image presents idleness as something from which other troubles may grow.
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Neglecting an available task can leave its expected benefit unrealised. Bare feet picture the lack of something that effort might have supplied.
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Shared improvement can begin with each person addressing something they can change. The saying stresses individual contribution, while overstating matters if it assumes every wider problem can be solved through isolated self-correction.
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A task or opportunity may attract someone else when one person declines. The saying recognises differing willingness without erasing a person’s right to refuse.
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When a condition cannot be changed to suit you, consider changing your own approach instead. The mountain image encourages practical adaptation, without requiring submission to unfairness or making every obstacle something you must accommodate.
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Wishing for a result does not by itself make it happen. A hope becomes more useful when connected to practical action or realistic conditions.
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A wish alone does not supply what is needed. Turning wishes into birds makes an impossible abundance expose the gap between desire and provision.
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The rhyme imagines beggars riding if wishes would hold or endure. It contrasts a desired improvement with the limits of wanting it alone.
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Taking direct responsibility can be useful when you need a task completed and cannot rely on an unclear arrangement. Sometimes acting is more effective than repeatedly waiting.
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Taking direct responsibility may help ensure that an important task is understood and completed. The saying favours personal action over merely sending someone, without proving that delegation is ineffective or that everything must be done alone.
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If a task matters to you, direct involvement can help ensure that its requirements are understood. The proverb exaggerates the weakness of sending someone else; capable delegation can work when responsibility, information and authority are clear.
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Do not remove what a later result needs in order to develop. Plucking the flower while wanting the fruit pictures a short-term action that defeats the benefit being sought.
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The saying recommends turning a cheese seven times before it cools if it is to be good and kept old. A remembered count is attached to a preparation task.
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An organised space or routine can make preparation easier when something is needed. Clear places and arrangements reduce the time spent searching or deciding who should do what.
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The richest result may require going beyond an easy surface approach. Deep water becomes an image of work or understanding that takes more effort to reach, without guaranteeing a better outcome.
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Important choices about partnership and livelihood can benefit from a range of advice. Consulting all the world exaggerates the value of hearing beyond one’s own view.
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Effort and careful use of resources can work together towards a worthwhile result. The saying values both contribution and conservation without guaranteeing success or requiring constant work and deprivation.
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