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
The world’s mystery described as making life worth living gives unanswered questions a positive value. The saying welcomes wonder rather than demanding complete certainty.
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Enjoyment and good judgement can go together. You can be cheerful or playful while still paying attention to your responsibilities and the effects on others.
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An activity may offer too little enjoyment or benefit to justify the effort and resources it requires. The candle image asks whether the occasion is worthwhile, without giving pleasure a single price or measure.
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Enjoyment pushed too far can become unpleasant. Surfeiting turns a welcome experience into an excess that defeats its original pleasure.
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Laughing and growing fat connects cheer with bodily flourishing in an exaggerated image. It gives enjoyment a positive value.
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The saying makes laughter the best medicine. It presents humour as a possible source of comfort through a remedy image.
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Life can hold experiences and relationships that people value. The brief expression affirms that attachment, without requiring constant happiness or dismissing someone whose present circumstances are painful or difficult.
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Unpredictable life paired with eating cake first playfully gives present enjoyment priority over delay. The saying reminds a reader that plans may change.
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The saying values what makes living welcome, rather than mere duration. Liking can point to chosen interests and relationships, but the phrase should not demand constant enjoyment or suggest that pain, grief or limited choices make a life less worthy.
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The saying dismisses enjoyment of small things as evidence of a small mind. A constructive reading questions that judgement: an ordinary pleasure need not reveal limited understanding, and the value of an experience cannot be settled by how impressive it looks.
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The saying reverses love and live to make each the purpose of the other. It presents affection as both part of enjoying life and a reason for living.
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Do not turn an activity pursued for enjoyment into an unnecessary burden. The saying asks whether the way a pleasure is organised still serves its purpose, without claiming that enjoyable activities should never involve effort or commitment.
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A supportive partnership can make difficulties easier to carry and pleasures richer to share. Halving and doubling give mutual support a memorable numerical image.
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Enjoyment can feel uncomplicated until the responsibilities attached to it become clear. The feast and its reckoning contrast immediate pleasure with the later account, without condemning celebration or predicting that enjoyment must end badly.
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The expression wishes for a pleasant meeting, a friendly parting and another welcome encounter. It values the continuity of good company as a hope or greeting, rather than a prediction about how every relationship will develop.
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The saying separates buying from happiness. It questions treating money as sufficient to secure a desired emotional state.
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The saying praises a neighbour-quart as a good quart. A qualified reading connects the enjoyment of a measured portion with the neighbour associated with it.
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A bride never ugly on her wedding day gives a celebratory occasion a generous judgment of appearance. The saying expresses admiration through an absolute claim.
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The absence of disagreement is equated with happiness. The saying presents harmony as a desirable condition.
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Pleasant experiences can come with inconvenience or irritation. The rhyme suggests that enjoyment need not be perfectly trouble-free, without making distress inevitable or requiring anyone to endure harm for the sake of pleasure.
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One whiskey enough, two too much and three too little turns moderation into a contradictory joke. The saying plays on a desire that changes after consumption.
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Not recognising enough is described as poverty. The saying turns attention from possessions alone to an inability to feel sufficient.
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The saying places courage to laugh beside readiness to die as forms of mastery. It gives resilient enjoyment an elevated value through an extreme comparison.
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A favourable result may change how someone remembers the effort or discomfort that preceded it. The saying recognises that shift, while benefit does not erase harm, make every sacrifice justified or oblige someone to describe a difficult experience positively.
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