proverb · Source-linked selection
Set trees poor, and they will grow rich; set them rich, and they will grow poor.
Set trees poor, and they will grow rich; set them rich, and they will grow poor.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The saying predicts opposite growth from setting trees poor or rich. It recommends the apparently less favourable start and warns against the apparently richer one.
What the words are saying
Grow rich and grow poor reverse the initial labels. A careful reading identifies this reversal without deciding which soil, treatment or resource level the words describe. As a qualified analogy, more provision is not always assumed to improve a process. That broader reading still requires actual evidence rather than treating deprivation as beneficial.
Everyday example
A reader asks what poor and rich mean in the instruction before applying the contrast to any planting method.
When to use it
Use it to examine an agricultural rule with undefined conditions.
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What it does not mean
This is not verified cultivation guidance or a reason to deprive people of resources.
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
- A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases
Entry 1656 · Trees
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- English