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 (Spanish-language collection)
An available market is of little use to someone with nothing ready to offer. The contrast links an opening with the preparation needed to take part in it.
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A promised kindness may lose its value to the recipient if it is delayed too long. The saying connects appreciation with timely follow-through, without making gratitude an entitlement or ignoring reasonable limits.
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A person who places ultimate value in a relationship with God can feel that ordinary losses do not take away what matters most.
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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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Confidence can depend on support that an observer does not see. Recognise the assistance behind an achievement before concluding that the same task should be equally easy for everyone.
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Having enough without depending on borrowing or flattering others can feel freeing. The saying values reduced dependence, without implying that needing help makes someone less worthy or less capable of contentment.
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Someone may assess your situation using their own standards or experience. Check whether that measure fits what is being judged instead of assuming that their reference point is universal.
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A desired benefit may require doing the necessary work to reach it. Cracking the nut before eating its kernel links a result to its practical prerequisite, without promising that any amount of effort guarantees success.
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A person under pressure may need to act while receiving enough support to begin. The supported swimmer pictures necessity together with limited assistance.
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When a situation has a real constraint, adjust your approach to pass through it. Flexibility can help where insisting on your usual posture will not.
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Strong pressure can make a person feel they have little choice about moving forward. The devil driving supplies a forceful image of compulsion, while leaving room to examine the choices that remain.
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Intervening in someone else’s work or claiming its results can overstep a boundary. The borrowed harvest represents effort whose ownership or responsibility belongs elsewhere.
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Solving one shortage by taking resources needed for another obligation may only move the problem. Check whether a proposed fix leaves a new unmet commitment elsewhere.
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Lavish promises can create the appearance of generosity without delivering any benefit. Judge an undertaking by its realistic terms and fulfilment rather than the scale of its words.
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Holding the bag is placed beside putting things into it, extending responsibility to a person who knowingly enables wrongdoing.
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Doing nothing can resemble being asleep even when a person is awake. The saying challenges disengagement, but it does not make rest, recovery or quiet thought equivalent to neglect.
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A person can obstruct their own view or progress through the position they take. The light image invites attention to a changeable obstacle, without making every setback self-inflicted or ignoring barriers imposed by others.
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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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An already completed undertaking may include useful details that would take effort to provide separately. The finished house pictures the value of work already done.
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Purchases often bring unwanted material along with what is wanted. The saying contrasts stones, bones and shells with an approving claim that ale contains only the desired purchase.
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Someone who expects a task to prosper should take practical responsibility for its work. Holding or driving the plough pictures direct involvement.
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The saying asks for steadiness when conditions become less favourable, rather than enjoyment only when things go well. Its complaint about deserving a good market should not imply that suffering earns success or that someone must tolerate an unfair arrangement.
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The saying claims that correcting one person improves many others. It treats a response to a single action as an example that a wider group may notice.
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