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 (Spanish-language collection)
A relationship cannot be made mutual by pursuing someone who does not return the interest. The fruitless race invites respect for reciprocity and boundaries, without condemning care that freely expects no return.
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Affection can create influence through willing connection rather than force. The kingdom-without-a-sword image praises that possibility, without treating love as ownership or excusing pressure presented as care.
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The saying pictures love as seeing no faults. It emphasises affection’s willingness to overlook imperfections through an absolute claim about perception.
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The instruction urges affection toward oneself. It asks the person to include their own life and needs within the care they offer.
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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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People who care deeply about each other may look for ways around obstacles to their relationship. The saying expresses determination, rather than a promise of success.
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The saying urges self-love by warning that otherwise no one else will love the person. Its pressure comes from an absolute prediction about others.
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The saying imagines lovers living on love as larks live on leeks. The playful comparison questions whether affection alone can supply the practical needs of life.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (Spanish-language collection)
Affection runs in different directions: one person loves someone whose attention is elsewhere. The short exchange portrays a painful mismatch rather than a shared relationship or an obligation to return affection.
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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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The saying presents marriage as a lasting commitment. Forever makes its intended duration absolute, without describing any particular relationship or legal rule.
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The saying makes marriage the sunset of love. It presents a committed relationship as the fading of romantic feeling.
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The saying expresses a belief that marriage has a providential or sacred basis. It can convey reverence for a bond without proving that any particular match is destined.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
The hopeful beginning of a marriage does not guarantee that the relationship will go well. The source’s cynical contrast invites attention to continuing conduct, rather than a prediction that marriage must fail.
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A partnership shaped by unequal social power may become a relationship of command. The saying warns that a supposed advantage can carry a loss of equality.
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Regret predicted whether one marries or not makes both options seem unsatisfying. The saying presents a pessimistic choice paradox.
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Marriage can be shaped by material considerations as well as affection. The saying highlights that influence while overstating it as the whole matter.
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Stars imagined as openings through which lost loved ones send light offer a comforting picture of continuing love. Maybe keeps the image speculative.
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The saying contrasts idealised expectations during courtship with everyday experience in marriage. It invites attention to ordinary responsibilities before a commitment, but its gendered and absolute framing should not imply that marriage inevitably disappoints or that affection is merely illusion.
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Polite words are easy to offer, but they have little value when unsupported by considerate conduct. Look beyond courteous speech to how someone actually treats others.
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The saying blames disorder at home for a husband’s absence or wandering. It shifts attention towards domestic conditions while overlooking the husband’s own choices and shared responsibility for the household.
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The saying assumes a son’s marriage weakens his family bond while a daughter’s bond remains. A critical reading exposes that gendered expectation rather than treating it as a rule.
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A wife not to be struck even with a flower makes nonviolence absolute through an apparently gentle object. The saying rejects an excuse based on how slight an assault appears.
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No kindness ever wasted gives even a small caring act enduring value. The supplied wording attributes the statement to Aesop.
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