Words worth understanding
Start with the thought in plain English. Then explore the imagery, a practical example, when to use it, and what the saying does not mean.
4,000 entries with editorial explanations. The wider collection also contains entries still awaiting an individual interpretation.
proverb · Traditional
A child and a person labelled crazy supplying truth contrasts unguarded speech with conventional restraint. The saying uses a demeaning label to imagine candour.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Gold having a price and learning being beyond price contrast market value with an immeasurable benefit. The saying gives understanding an elevated importance.
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The saying makes good judgment come from experience and experience come from bad judgment. It gives learning from mistakes a circular, paradoxical form.
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Good judgment arising from experience and experience from bad judgment gives errors a possible role in later understanding. The saying creates a learning loop.
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Great minds agreeing but fools rarely differing gives the same consensus two possible explanations. The saying questions agreement treated as proof of quality.
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The saying pairs a snowless Christmas with a snowy Easter. It imagines one seasonal condition being answered by its opposite later.
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The saying gives green wood a hot fire. It assigns a strong result to a described fuel without explaining the conditions or how green is being used.
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Habit guiding the narrow-minded criticises automatic reliance on familiar ways. The saying asks whether repetition has replaced fresh consideration.
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Hail is imagined as arriving with frost following behind it. The tail image turns a sequence of weather into a single creature-like visitor.
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The saying calls hatred as blind as love. It suggests that strong dislike can obscure good qualities just as strong affection can obscure faults.
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The saying compares a good discussion with riches. It values what people gain through conversation in the language of material wealth.
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The saying makes awareness of possible mistakes a sign of being right. It values self-questioning over presumed infallibility.
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The phrase mocks someone for failing to recognise an obvious difference. Use its meaning to understand the criticism, while avoiding a sweeping judgement about a person from one gap in their knowledge.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
A person can overlook something immediately available while searching farther away. Check the present situation before assuming that the missing resource must be elsewhere.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
A distant account can be hard to check, allowing an invented story to sound convincing. The saying draws attention to verification rather than encouraging dishonesty.
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Apparent bravery caused by fear of running away contrasts a visible action with a possible hidden motive. The saying questions courage judged by appearance alone.
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The saying criticises teaching everything. A useful reading asks whether instruction needs selection and sequence rather than an overwhelming amount at once.
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Trying every available thing without discrimination is pictured as eventually biting a poisonous weed. The warning favours judgment over indiscriminate sampling; it is a figurative caution, not evidence that curiosity is dangerous or a guide to identifying safe plants.
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Groping in darkness pictures acting without enough understanding and encountering an unwanted result. The saying encourages seeking clarity before proceeding, while allowing that complete information may be unavailable and that a carefully chosen exploratory step can still be useful.
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Someone never travelling calling their mother the only good cook contrasts a familiar example with unexamined alternatives. The saying questions a universal judgment drawn from limited experience.
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Ingenuity alone may not sustain an undertaking that lacks necessary resources. Wit and stock contrast a clever approach with the means that let it work.
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The saying turns glass into lass by removing G, then lass into ass by removing L. The letter game uses the result to mock the person described.
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The saying pictures someone inspecting every cloud being struck by a thunderbolt. Its warning associates intrusive curiosity with an unexpected cost.
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Acting quickly without enough visibility can lead to mistakes. The running-at-night image cautions against moving faster than the available understanding, without making caution an excuse for endless delay or supplying practical running instructions.
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