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 pressing need can motivate people to devise a new tool, method or workaround. Constraints sometimes make a problem clear enough to inspire a practical solution.
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Urgent circumstances can draw an unexpected effort from someone. The trotting older woman makes the contrast between usual pace and immediate need vivid.
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Do not carelessly undermine what you are trying to offer. Calling one’s own fish stinking pictures damaging speech about an undertaking one hopes others will accept.
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Work with the relevant characteristics of a task rather than forcing a method that fights them. The timber’s grain supplies the image, without making every existing arrangement natural, fixed or beyond improvement.
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An ambition needs the means that make it possible. Identify the necessary tools, abilities or support instead of expecting desire alone to carry out the task.
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Repeated use prevents a place from settling undisturbed. The beaten road represents a route kept clear by frequent passage, rather than a place left to grow over.
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No individual can do everything. The saying recognises limits of skill, time and capacity, encouraging cooperation or priorities without deciding that a particular person cannot learn, develop or take on a new challenge.
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An activity may depend on continuing support. The pipe-and-dance image asks what sustains the action, without assuming every activity must stop when one form of support ends or that people exist only to respond to another’s wishes.
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Two competing authorities or commitments can make dependable service difficult. The saying asks whether their demands can be reconciled, before someone promises to satisfy both as though no conflict exists.
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Skilled work normally takes learning and practice. A beginner’s first attempt should not be judged as though they already have the experience and support of a practised worker.
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Some conditions make a direct effort ineffective until the approach changes. The stream image invites realistic assessment of resistance, without requiring submission to injustice or declaring that every obstacle is impossible to overcome.
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What emerges from a process depends on what was available within it. The sack image asks the reader to examine the input, without assuming that a process can never transform material or receive something new.
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A result depends on what was put into its source. The sack pictures a store that cannot supply something it never contained.
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Waiting without taking a necessary step may leave a need unmet. The sleeping fox’s empty mouth pictures the difference between wanting a result and doing something that could help obtain it.
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Strong willingness can help someone search for a route through a difficult task. The saying celebrates resolve through exaggeration, rather than proving that determination removes every limit or that an unsuccessful person did not want the result enough.
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An existing success can attract confidence, attention or further opportunities. The saying describes a possible reinforcing effect, not proof that success establishes merit or guarantees another favourable result.
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Some worthwhile gains require taking a chance. Refusing every risk can prevent a success that depends on making an attempt.
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The saying assigns November to threshing work and warns against further sailing. It divides the season into a preferred task and a discouraged undertaking.
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Honesty gives skilled work a dependable basis by making its claims and dealings trustworthy. The saying values truthful conduct alongside ability, rather than promising that honesty alone supplies every skill or always earns a reward.
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Poor foundations are unlikely to produce a good result. Grain and seed turn the connection between a starting point and its outcome into a growing image.
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Avoiding a worthwhile task can leave its benefits unrealised. The sweeping wording should be limited to neglect, rather than applied to every period of rest.
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A result usually needs some contribution, condition or material to make it possible. The saying challenges an expectation of an outcome without a basis, rather than proving a universal account of how everything comes into existence.
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Preserving a useful resource can leave it available when needed. The saying highlights retention as one contributor to what a person or group has.
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Past recognition may fade unless it is supported by continuing substance or renewed attention. Feeding old praise gives reputation the needs of a living thing.
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