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
Hold back words that would be better left unsaid. The image of keeping the tongue behind the teeth encourages restraint in speaking, rather than requiring silence about a genuine concern or something that needs to be reported.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Preventing a foreseeable difficulty can be preferable to repairing its effects afterwards. The falling-and-helping image values timely support, while it should not make prevention a reason to withhold help when a problem has already occurred.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Useful effort can bring an immediate sense of activity and progress, while avoidable neglect may cause trouble. The warmth image contrasts engagement with inaction.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Trying to escape a small effort may lead to a larger one. This closely resembles the idle-folk saying and warns about an ineffective shortcut, without providing a fair label for everyone who pauses or needs help.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
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.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Someone considering a purchase should examine what is being offered rather than rely only on its appeal. The saying encourages informed questions, while leaving sellers responsible for honest descriptions and avoiding blame when deception or unequal information prevents a fair choice.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Keep choices within the resources actually available to you. The purse as master warns against letting wishes dictate commitments, without suggesting that insufficient resources are a moral failure or that every need can simply be postponed.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Experience can help you prepare, but it cannot reveal every difficulty in advance. Leave room to adapt when a situation includes hazards that earlier lessons did not allow you to foresee.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Providing something where it is already plentiful may be redundant or poorly matched to the need. The familiar comparison questions the usefulness of an addition, without establishing present conditions in Newcastle or making every surplus worthless.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
An attractive appearance does not remove ordinary needs. The rosy-lips image redirects attention from admiration to practical care, without making beauty a fault or defining a person only by appearance or dependency.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
A person who secretly listens to others may hear unwelcome comments about themselves. The saying warns about eavesdropping and its consequences, without making overheard remarks reliable evidence or blaming someone for accidentally hearing hurtful speech.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
A small undertaking may need to stay within conditions it can manage. The boat-and-shore image encourages attention to capacity, without requiring permanent timidity or providing practical navigation instructions.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Physical size is not a dependable measure of someone’s courage, generosity or depth of character. The proverb challenges that shortcut, without claiming that smaller people necessarily have greater virtues or ranking people by their bodies.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Children may hear and understand more of an adult conversation than the speakers expect. The small-pitcher image reminds adults to take care with sensitive talk, without treating children as intruders or denying their right to ask questions.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Food supports life, but satisfying appetite need not become the whole purpose of living. The reversed wording distinguishes a means from an end.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
A poor initial arrangement can shape the finished result. Crooked placement in the oven stands for a mistake made before a process has properly begun.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Pay attention to the opportunity or interest that matters most to your purpose. The advice favors practical focus, while leaving open whether pursuing that advantage is fair or worth its costs.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
A reasonable request may open an opportunity that remains closed if you never ask. The possibility of refusal need not prevent a polite enquiry.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying cynically observes that losing often attracts blame. It is not a fair rule: an unfavourable outcome does not prove that the person who lost acted wrongly.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Keep the demands of an undertaking within what can support them. Sail and ship represent ambition and capacity, encouraging a suitable balance rather than assuming that larger plans are always unwise.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
When a choice has already turned out poorly, look for the best workable next step. You may still reduce the loss or recover something useful.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying portrays men as the visible authority and women as influencing that authority indirectly. It contrasts a formal position with influence while relying on a fixed picture of gender roles.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Human plans are contrasted with God’s final disposition of events. The saying can express religious humility about control, but it should not make preparation pointless, promise a favourable outcome or be used to dismiss another person’s loss as something they must accept without support.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying contrasts men’s outward position of authority with women’s supposed influence over what happens. It questions visible power while still relying on a fixed gendered picture of relationships.
Read the explanation and example ↗