Proverbs and their meanings.

Meaning: The phrase points to the part of a situation that makes it amusing. It signals a payoff or irony rather than explaining the joke on its own.

Meaning: People who have less at stake may find it easier to laugh at a risky situation. The saying contrasts carefree amusement with the concerns of those who could lose more.

Meaning: The saying contrasts a large amount of legal contest with little affection. It expresses concern that an adversarial dispute can strain relationships, but it should not deny the need for legal protection or imply that asserting a right proves a lack of care.

Meaning: The saying claims law differs between morning and night. It presents a striking change over a single day without identifying a rule or the reason for the difference.

Meaning: The saying warns that someone drawn to legal disputes may get more of them than they want. Getting one’s fill can turn an initial appetite into weariness.

Meaning: People who establish rules should be accountable to the standards they ask others to follow. The saying challenges a double standard, without deciding any particular legal case or assuming that every rule is fair simply because someone made it.

Meaning: Rules may be enforced against less powerful people while stronger ones escape scrutiny. The flies and hornets criticise unequal accountability, without establishing what any present law says or proving that a particular enforcement decision is unfair.

Meaning: The spider’s-web comparison criticises rules that catch the less powerful while allowing powerful people to escape their effects. It raises a question about unequal accountability, rather than proving that every institution works this way or settling a particular legal allegation.

Meaning: The saying imagines laws as responses to dishonest or harmful conduct. It assigns their purpose to restraining rogues rather than explaining every function of law.

Meaning: The saying sets professional skill in law beside being a bad neighbour. It warns that an ability admired in one setting may be used unhelpfully in another.

Meaning: The saying uses lawyers going to heaven as an image for proceeding gently or slowly. Its comparison has a possible satirical edge, while the exact tone is not supplied.

Meaning: Trying to escape a small effort may lead to a larger one. This closely resembles the idle-folk saying and warns about an ineffective shortcut, without providing a fair label for everyone who pauses or needs help.

Meaning: You can provide an opportunity, guidance or encouragement, but another person must choose whether to take part. The horse image distinguishes making something available from being able to compel a willing response.

Meaning: A costly method can be disproportionate to the value of what it obtains. The silver shovel and lead invite a comparison between means and result, rather than assuming that any successful effort is worth its expense.

Meaning: A small unresolved problem can undermine a much larger undertaking. The leak and ship emphasise consequences that grow if ignored, without claiming that every minor fault will become disastrous or needs the same response.

Meaning: Learning can make time alone more engaging by giving you ideas to explore. Developing interests can enrich your own company without making solitude a requirement or a substitute for relationships.

Meaning: Saying less can sometimes let a minor dispute settle sooner. Restraint may prevent extra remarks from turning an awkward moment into a larger quarrel.

Meaning: A burden may be out of proportion to the person assigned to carry it. The small-boy-and-large-fiddle image questions that mismatch, without making size a reliable measure of ability or claiming the pattern always occurs.

Meaning: The saying pictures an empty leech sucking intensely. As an explicit analogy, a strong unmet demand may be imagined to increase the force of taking.

Meaning: The saying warns that refusing a loan may disappoint a friend. It is too absolute to be a rule: friendship should not require lending what you cannot reasonably or willingly provide.

Meaning: Extreme reluctance to part with something is pictured as refusing even a request that would harm an enemy. The knife makes the refusal comically absolute.

Meaning: The saying makes a greater truth a greater libel. Its provocative contrast suggests that an accurate accusation may be felt as especially damaging by its subject.

Meaning: A generous person looks for ways to act generously. Devising suggests that kindness can involve deliberate planning, rather than only an impulsive gift.

Meaning: Freedom without regard for consequences or shared responsibilities can undermine a situation. The saying warns about excess rather than defining every legitimate limit.