proverb · Words worth keeping
All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying links hard work with profit and mere talk with poverty. It favours carrying out an undertaking over speaking about it alone.
What the words are saying
All and only make the causal claims absolute. A responsible explanation values useful action without promising earnings or blaming poverty on speech or lack of effort. Planning and communication can be work too; the supplied religious encouragement does not establish a financial outcome.
Everyday example
A group turns a proposal into suitable next steps while acknowledging limits on its resources and results.
When to use it
Use it to discuss follow-through without a merit-based account of poverty.
What it does not mean
Hard work does not guarantee profit, and poverty does not prove a failure to act.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided proverb reference
Supplied reference A; unit 553; PDF page 80
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.