Proverbs and their meanings.

Meaning: A useful partial result can be better than receiving nothing. Recognise what a smaller provision contributes without pretending it fully meets the need.

Meaning: The saying exaggerates the misery of an unhappy marriage by comparing it with severe punishment. It stresses the importance of a workable relationship, while rejecting the idea that either violence or lasting distress must be accepted.

Meaning: A tool can be good at its intended job and unsuitable for another. Choose according to the task rather than assuming general quality makes every use appropriate.

Meaning: The phrase mocks someone for failing to recognise an obvious difference. Use its meaning to understand the criticism, while avoiding a sweeping judgement about a person from one gap in their knowledge.

Meaning: The saying imposes fixed age deadlines for appearance, strength, wisdom and wealth. Its sweeping prediction should be questioned: these qualities are not a single timetable, and missing an age-based expectation does not determine a person’s future or worth.

Meaning: The saying imagines birth fixing a death by hanging and ruling out death by drowning. It expresses fatalism through a stark contrast between two dangers.

Meaning: The saying rationalises a greater wrongdoing when punishment is imagined to be the same. The sheep and lamb expose a dangerous escalation in the speaker’s reasoning.

Meaning: The saying uses several ways of killing a dog as an image of multiple means to an end. A humane application concerns alternative methods for a harmless task.

Meaning: The saying gives sunshine at a wedding and rain at a funeral favourable meanings. It assigns different weather wishes to two very different occasions.

Meaning: An outcome or opportunity may emerge in a direction that was not expected. The escaping hare warns against fixing attention too narrowly, without making surprise inevitable or replacing careful observation with random guessing.

Meaning: A careful qualification such as hardly ever can prevent an exaggerated claim from becoming false. Use it when it accurately describes the exceptions, rather than as a convenient way to hide them.

Meaning: Those who initiate a task may differ from those who obtain its result or recognition. The small and large dogs invite attention to complementary contributions and unequal rewards, without making either contribution automatically more valuable.

Meaning: Do not make commitments that depend on a result you have not secured. The hare’s skin still needing to be caught pictures counting an uncertain benefit as though it were already yours to promise.

Meaning: You can sometimes avoid a mistake by learning from what happened to someone else. Relevant experience need not become your own loss before you consider what it shows.

Meaning: A worthwhile result can still contain minor imperfections. The harvest and thistles suggest appreciating substantial success without letting small defects eclipse it, while leaving room to address defects that genuinely matter.

Meaning: A hurried approach can create the very obstacle that slows it down. Notice when urgency is leading you to skip the steps needed to move forward reliably.

Meaning: Rushing too much can create mistakes that waste the time or resources you hoped to save. A controlled pace may complete a task more efficiently.

Meaning: Most tasks deserve enough care to avoid needless rushing. Catching fleas supplies a comic exception: the saying favours considered action, but its exaggerated wording does not rule out occasions when speed is useful.

Meaning: Acting hastily can create avoidable trouble by leaving relevant questions unchecked. The saying criticises rushed action, while its absolute wording should not make every quick decision seem wrong or every delay wise.

Meaning: Decisions made too quickly may overlook what would help them succeed. The proverb questions rushed commitment, without proving that a slow decision is always better or that urgent action must wait.

Meaning: Take precautions where the difficulty is coming from. Pulling a hat down on the windward side pictures a response fitted to the actual challenge, rather than preparation made without regard to conditions.

Meaning: Once something has fallen, people may hurry to exploit its weakened position. The felled-tree image can expose opportunism after a setback, but it should not make that response inevitable or excuse treating a vulnerable person as material to take advantage of.

Meaning: A protected situation can make an activity seem easier or safer than it would elsewhere. The good haven pictures favourable conditions, without proving that confidence there will transfer to an exposed setting.

Meaning: Use favourable conditions while they last. Preparing or completing a task during a suitable period can help you avoid difficulties when those conditions change.