Change.

Meaning: Constant movement or change can prevent someone from accumulating lasting commitments, resources or attachments. Whether that is a loss or a benefit depends on what the person values.

Meaning: Deeply established habits can seem inseparable from a person. The bone-and-flesh image emphasises persistence, but its word never overstates the point: early patterns can be questioned and changed, and they do not prove an unalterable inherited character.

Meaning: A change in leadership may bring a change in expectations or rules. The saying alerts people to a new arrangement, without making every change necessary, just or automatically worthy of obedience.

Meaning: Long-established habits can be difficult to change. The saying states this too absolutely: it does not show that older people are incapable of learning or that every new attempt will fail.

Meaning: Some worthwhile changes involve unavoidable costs or disruption. Reaching an aim may require accepting a limited sacrifice rather than expecting every benefit without loss.

Meaning: Baskets dismissed after the vintage is finished picture equipment whose immediate season of use has ended. Recognise when a particular task is over.

Meaning: A strongly connected relationship or arrangement can be costly to break. Consider how deeply the parts are joined when assessing the consequences of a rupture.

Meaning: Moving or disturbing something can cause losses that were easy to overlook. Consider whether unnecessary handling or repeated changes will shed useful parts of an arrangement.

Meaning: A short period can bring an event absent for many years. A long stretch of stability does not make a sudden change impossible.

Meaning: Favourable circumstances can still include an unexpected setback. Enjoy a good position while avoiding the assumption that every next step is certain to remain easy.

Meaning: A young person’s mistakes need not determine every later choice. Allow room for reflection and improvement while addressing the consequences of what has actually happened.

Meaning: Past contents can leave a trace after a container is emptied. The image suggests that established habits or experiences may continue influencing later behaviour.

Meaning: Some established things need no interference merely because they are present. The image invites a reason for changing an arrangement, without making preservation a rule in every case.

Meaning: A rose passes through successive forms rather than remaining at one admired stage. The image invites attention to development, time and changing kinds of value.

Meaning: A newcomer may receive especially warm attention because their arrival is fresh. Notice the effect of novelty without assuming older relationships have become less valuable.

Meaning: People who arrive later can come to hold authority over those already present. Consider how power changed rather than assuming arrival order determines a permanent place.

Meaning: Days arrive in succession without being identical. Attend to the circumstances of the present day rather than assuming yesterday’s experience is a complete guide.

Meaning: Positions of apparent strength can decline while disregarded things rise. The wall and dunghill contrast challenges confidence in a fixed hierarchy, without making lower status a sign of lesser human worth.

Meaning: A large move can bring a large disturbance. The leap and shake ask that ambition include attention to consequences, without assuming every substantial change is reckless or should be avoided.

Meaning: Someone presently subordinate may later hold comparable authority. Peter and his master offer a reversal of position, without promising advancement, naming a historical Peter or treating command as the only measure of achievement.