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
Settling shared expenses or obligations promptly can prevent resentment between friends. Clear, manageable accounts help money matters stay separate from uncertainty about the relationship.
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The saying links Easter rain with plentiful grass but little hay. One holiday’s conditions are made a sign of two contrasting later outcomes.
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Spending on outward display can crowd out ordinary necessities. Fine clothing is pictured as consuming the resources that would keep the kitchen working.
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The saying prefers Simon Noland’s lower-status title to Humphrey Hadland’s gentlemanly one. The contrasting names suggest present lack of land beside land once held, while social labels complicate the comparison.
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The saying warns that avoidable neglect can contribute to need. Calling sloth the mother of poverty exaggerates one possible cause into a general explanation.
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Chink evokes money, while stink represents an unpleasant or objectionable cost someone accepts to obtain it. The saying exposes willingness to overlook what is wrong for an advantage, rather than endorsing that willingness or proving that every paid activity is compromised.
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Feeling distressed about an obligation does not by itself meet it. When you can, seek a practical next step or suitable help rather than expecting worry alone to change what remains owed.
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Use words and resources with consideration rather than spending either without a purpose. The paired restraints favour discretion and proportion, without requiring silence or withholding help that can fairly be given.
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The saying encourages preserving resources earlier for use later. Its life-stage pattern is an invitation to foresight rather than a rule everyone can follow.
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Risky attempts to recover losses can worsen damage begun by careless spending. The saying describes a harmful sequence rather than every act of speculation.
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You can use resources generously without treating them carelessly. Enjoyment and freedom in spending can coexist with attention to what is useful, wanted and likely to be wasted.
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Avoid unnecessary spending, but do not refuse an expense that a real need requires. Good judgement distinguishes a useful saving from an economy that prevents the task from being done properly.
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Do not endanger something valuable by refusing a small necessary expense or effort. The contrast between a ship and a little tar warns against a saving that undermines the larger purpose.
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Attention to small amounts can contribute to a larger total over time. The saying encourages care with ordinary resources, but small savings alone cannot guarantee prosperity or solve a shortage of income.
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A small expense can be worthwhile if it prevents a larger avoidable cost. Judge the effect of spending, rather than treating every payment as a loss regardless of what it accomplishes.
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Money in your possession is not necessarily money you are free to use. If it belongs to someone else or is already owed, a full purse may conceal a lack of available resources.
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Resources without guidance or responsibility can create opportunities for careless choices. The saying warns about indulgence while making an overly broad claim about youth.
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The saying pictures an empty leech sucking intensely. As an explicit analogy, a strong unmet demand may be imagined to increase the force of taking.
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The saying states that a fifer does not pay a fiddler. A qualified reading contrasts providing music oneself with paying another musician to provide it.
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Need changes how an offer is experienced. The full stomach rejecting sweetness and the hungry one welcoming bitterness contrast abundance with urgency.
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Being satisfied with enough can offer a kind of richness that possessions alone do not provide. The proverb values contentment without claiming that deprivation is desirable or that material needs do not matter.
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The image expresses fear that legal expense may consume resources without a clear limit. Examine costs and scope, while avoiding an unfair accusation against an entire profession.
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Receiving payment in advance may weaken someone’s incentive to finish the work. The broken arm is a figurative picture of effort stopping after the money arrives.
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Extreme reluctance to spend can create later costs that defeat the intended saving. The proverb questions an apparent economy without proving that greater spending is always better.
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