Life is full of hazards, which experience neither bought nor taught will always enable us to foresee.

Understand the thought

Meaning in plain English

Experience can help you prepare, but it cannot reveal every difficulty in advance. Leave room to adapt when a situation includes hazards that earlier lessons did not allow you to foresee.

What the words are saying

The saying limits confidence in experience, whether it comes from one’s own costly lessons or from teaching and other people’s accounts. Both can be useful without supplying complete foresight. A new combination of circumstances may create a difficulty that a familiar pattern did not predict. The proverb does not make preparation pointless or excuse ignoring a known risk. Its practical value is to balance learning with humility: use the evidence available, recognise what remains uncertain and consider how the plan could respond if conditions change. A setback may show the limits of prediction rather than prove that no one prepared responsibly.

Everyday example

An experienced organiser confirms the usual arrangements and also agrees how the team will communicate if an unexpected disruption changes the event.

When to use it

Use it when past experience is being treated as complete protection against unforeseen difficulties.

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Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.