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 saying makes silence an art within conversation. It values restraint and listening as contributions to an exchange rather than treating talk as its only activity.
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Silence sometimes called the best answer allows restraint to be a meaningful response. It recognises occasions when replying may not help.
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Choosing not to speak can prevent a needless argument or careless disclosure. Consider whether words will help, while recognising that silence can also leave an important problem unaddressed.
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The saying compares soldiers in peacetime with chimneys in summer. It pictures a role appearing less needed when the condition associated with its usual use is absent.
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Rain can create a pause in an activity. The short pairing presents rest as one possible counterpart to an interruption rather than only as lost time.
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Difficulties can arrive without being invited or deserved. Pairing sorrow with bad weather pictures events that interrupt plans independently of our wishes.
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The saying gives sorrow a purpose only in remorse for wrongdoing. A careful reading distinguishes that religious or moral emphasis from the many other reasons people grieve.
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Sorrow may change or become less overwhelming with time. Wearing away pictures a gradual easing rather than an instant end.
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Courteous speech can coexist with private disagreement. The saying separates how a thought is expressed from the thought itself.
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The saying ranks speech as silver and silence as gold. It uses valuable metals to place greater value on restraint in speaking.
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The instruction asks for positive speech. It encourages attention to the tone and constructive value of what is said.
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The instruction urges intervention before an unwanted process begins. It gives prevention priority over dealing with a developed problem.
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Removing what keeps a problem going can help bring it to an end. Fuel and flame picture cause and continuation, encouraging attention to the sustaining condition rather than only the visible disturbance.
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The saying calls the teeth friends among themselves. In the supplied reading, closeness can coexist with occasional disagreement.
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Keep your speech under considered control rather than letting impulse set its tone. Firm words can remain measured, accurate and proportionate without becoming an unnecessary attack.
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Silence proposed as an answer to a fool values withholding engagement from an unproductive exchange. The saying makes nonresponse a possible form of judgment.
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The saying personifies diet, cheerfulness and quiet as the best physicians. It gives everyday conditions the title of doctors in an idealised account of wellbeing.
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The saying pictures love as a course that never runs smoothly. It presents obstacles as part of a journey rather than evidence that affection is automatically absent.
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The saying’s cowboy ideal rejects initiating a shooting, attacking a smaller person and taking unfair advantage. It gives restraint and fairness an identity role.
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The saying turns a shared enemy into a friend. It treats opposition to the same person or group as a basis for alliance.
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The saying promises the earth to the meek. It reverses an expectation that power belongs only to forceful people.
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More argumentative victories paired with fewer friends questions winning at the expense of relationships. The saying links a competitive manner with possible social cost.
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A mouth turning into a knife gives speech an image of injury. The saying asks a speaker to recognise how words may hurt.
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A human mouth called a terrible opening gives speech a threatening scale. The saying draws attention to what spoken words can unleash.
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