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
Carelessly giving up resources can leave someone working hard to recover even a small amount. The hands discard what the feet must later pursue.
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Encountering unfamiliar places and ways of life can broaden understanding. The saying values experience beyond familiar surroundings, without guaranteeing insight from distance or making travel the only route to learning.
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Depending on a benefit that will arrive only when another person is gone can leave you waiting indefinitely. Build your plans around available possibilities rather than a vacancy or inheritance you cannot control.
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Depending on another person’s arrangements can delay meeting one’s own needs. Waiting at someone else’s table pictures the limits of control in that dependence.
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Some rewards cannot be obtained without first meeting a necessary condition. The kernel inside a nut gives a concrete image of that condition; this wording expresses the same broad idea as the archive’s other nut-and-kernel saying.
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Refusing every relevant suggestion can make cooperation harder. The proverb values openness to useful guidance, while its absolute wording should not deny someone help, compel agreement or make any adviser automatically right.
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Refusing useful guidance can leave a person facing the harder consequences of an avoidable mistake. The rudder steers, while the rock stops the vessel by collision.
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The saying proposes forcing someone into another route when they refuse the first. A critical reading asks whether the task is legitimate and whether force is justified at all.
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Attention to a small useful resource can be part of responsible care. Stooping for a pin makes modest effort visible, while the sweeping judgment about worth needs restraint.
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A small dishonest taking can be a reason to examine trust. The saying imagines escalation to something more valuable but does not establish that escalation as certain.
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A willingness to commit a small theft can raise concern about a larger one. The egg and ox exaggerate an escalation that should be examined rather than assumed.
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The saying links early effort with advancement and imagines success allowing more leisure. Its clock times are memorable rhetoric rather than a universal schedule.
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Taking full responsibility before learning what a task requires can leave important gaps in judgement. The master-and-scholar comparison encourages useful guidance and feedback, while allowing independent learning and questioning advice.
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A very demanding ambition can require sustained attention. The wish to become Pope gives the saying an extreme example of a goal absorbing a person’s effort.
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Obtaining a desired result may involve some inconvenience. Be willing to do the necessary work, while checking that the cost is proportionate and the method is reasonable.
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Uncertainty can prompt a believer to pray. Going to sea gives that religious response an image of circumstances beyond personal control.
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You cannot assume one choice will satisfy everyone’s preferences, including your own. Acknowledge conflicting needs and explain a reasonable decision rather than promising universal approval.
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The saying advises winning a mother’s goodwill when seeking a relationship with her daughter. It treats family approval as useful, but such approval cannot replace the daughter’s own wishes and consent.
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An undertaking with known hazards may require accepting some exposure to them. Battle and wounds make that point forcefully, without requiring someone to take an unreasonable risk or treating caution as cowardice.
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The saying urges further attack on someone already in difficulty. It describes a harsh response to weakness rather than a principle to follow; a constructive reading challenges the impulse to exploit a setback and asks what fairness or support requires.
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The rhyme promises wealth at burial to someone needy at marriage. It contrasts the beginning of a household commitment with an end at which wealth cannot be enjoyed in the same way.
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A spoken commitment can create an obligation that is difficult to undo. Consider what you are agreeing to before making a promise that later effort or regret may not easily release.
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Someone wants involvement or influence in many different activities. A finger in every pie pictures that widespread participation, without proving that their interest is useful, intrusive or dishonest in every case.
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The phrase describes someone born into material advantage or privilege. It points to favourable starting circumstances rather than achievements they earned themselves.
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