The collection / 3,980 fragments
Traditional sayings from a documented English collection, with reviewed meanings for an expanding editorial selection.
Meaning: If a task matters to you, direct involvement can help ensure that its requirements are understood. The proverb exaggerates the weakness of sending someone else; capable delegation can work when responsibility, information and authority are clear.
Meaning: Earthly possessions lose their comparative importance in the imagined final judgment. Money and a small amount of hay are placed on the same level.
Meaning: The end of one opportunity can leave room to pursue another. A closed route need not mean that every worthwhile direction is closed.
Meaning: Good conduct is presented as leading to a good outcome. The saying encourages care in what someone does, but the promised connection is not guaranteed: circumstances can frustrate careful work, and hardship is not proof that a person acted badly.
Meaning: The saying urges further attack on someone already in difficulty. It describes a harsh response to weakness rather than a principle to follow; a constructive reading challenges the impulse to exploit a setback and asks what fairness or support requires.
Meaning: A person described this way is easily led or persuaded. The fine thread makes very little force seem sufficient, suggesting pliability rather than establishing whether the influence is welcome, sensible or exploitative.
Meaning: Desperation can make even a very weak hope seem worth pursuing. Someone under severe pressure may reach for an option they would normally recognise as inadequate.
Meaning: The saying gives water and wine different models of drinking: an ox and a king of Spain. It contrasts an animal image with a royal one without specifying amounts.
Meaning: The saying warns that drinking without thirst may leave someone thirsty when no drink remains. Its sequence contrasts present use with later need.
Meaning: Secure one necessary step before adding another that depends on it. Check the foundation of the next action rather than expanding work on an arrangement that is still unsettled.
Meaning: Several small contributions can produce a substantial combined result. The drops-and-shower comparison invites attention to accumulation, without assuming every repeated action is useful or that individual circumstances do not matter.
Meaning: The saying makes the ash leafing before the oak a sign of past or future drought. Its broad time window lets the same observation refer backward or forward.
Meaning: Do not add burdens to someone already overwhelmed. Pouring more water onto a drowned mouse gives a stark image of effort that cannot help and may only worsen an already hopeless situation.
Meaning: The saying pairs constant drunkenness with constant thirst. It presents repeated drinking as failing to settle the want that appears to drive it.
Meaning: An evening of excessive drinking can leave an unpleasant aftermath. The cloudy morning gives that aftermath a visible, gloomy image.
Meaning: The saying suggests people sometimes speak truth while drunk. Often leaves room for variation, but the claim does not make intoxication a test of honesty.
Meaning: A person may say while drinking what they usually hold back. The saying contrasts restraint with a moment in which private thoughts are voiced.
Meaning: A simple life in a place where you feel at home may be preferable to greater luxury elsewhere. Comfort and belonging can matter more than the richness of the offering.
Meaning: The saying personifies a dry cough as a trumpeter announcing death. Its severe warning makes a symptom stand for an expected outcome.
Meaning: The saying claims that dry May followed by wet June brings things into good order. The musical phrase gives the weather sequence an image of harmony.
Meaning: Beginning a task earlier can allow its result to arrive earlier. The sowing-and-mowing image connects preparation with timing, but an early start is useful only when conditions suit the task; speed alone does not guarantee readiness or quality.
Meaning: Starting early can help you obtain an opportunity before others reach it. Timely preparation or action may matter as much as waiting for ideal conditions.
Meaning: Children may hear and understand more of an adult conversation than the speakers expect. The small-pitcher image reminds adults to take care with sensitive talk, without treating children as intruders or denying their right to ask questions.
Meaning: A conversation may be overheard even when the people speaking assume it is private. The personified walls warn about unintended listeners, without proving that someone is actually listening or that every setting is unsafe.