The collection / 6,437 fragments
Explore passages mentioning character, virtue, honour. Topic suggestions use transparent word matching, not scholarly classification. Reviewed editorial meanings may also connect entries to this topic; those assignments are labelled separately from word matching.
Meaning: A small harmful act can still matter to the person affected. The saying challenges dismissal based only on scale, and encourages a proportionate response that identifies the actual effect and what would put it right.
Meaning: Mocking behaviour can be copied or returned by others. The compact saying warns that ridicule may shape the tone of a group, without describing a literal infection or proving that one remark will produce a particular reaction.
Meaning: Modesty can support good conduct by leaving room for others and for correction. The saying treats it as an aid to virtue, without making quietness proof of goodness or requiring a person to conceal an achievement.
Meaning: Money can influence the status or treatment a person receives. The saying points to the power of material advantage, without establishing that wealth creates character, personal worth or genuine achievement.
Meaning: Resources without guidance or responsibility can create opportunities for careless choices. The saying warns about indulgence while making an overly broad claim about youth.
Meaning: An unreasonable request does not become sensible merely because someone agrees to it. Consider whether what is being offered is workable and appropriate rather than accepting every demand under pressure.
Meaning: Greater resources or support can bring greater expectations about their use. The saying invites responsible consideration without making a gift an unlimited debt or granting the giver control over the recipient.
Meaning: Someone may offer an incidental excuse to cover a mistake. The musician’s supposed crumb illustrates avoiding an admission, without making every interruption dishonest or allowing an observer to infer deception from a pause alone.
Meaning: A well-grounded reputation can retain value when it is not being publicly displayed. The lustre-in-darkness image praises lasting character, without treating reputation as infallible evidence or guaranteeing that good conduct will always be recognised.
Meaning: Reputation can feel inseparable from a person’s place in the world. Losing a good name is described with the intensity of losing life itself.
Meaning: Someone may treat everything that comes their way as useful to their purpose. The net makes opportunities seem readily usable, while leaving open whether that resourcefulness is considerate, appropriate or merely self-serving.
Meaning: Greater standing can be accompanied by greater humility rather than entitlement. The saying presents an ideal of conduct, without proving that rank establishes virtue or that someone without status has less reason to be respected.
Meaning: Habitual neglect can make harmful habits easier to acquire. The saying treats drifting away from useful activity as a kind of unintended learning.
Meaning: Failing to act can be harmful when a real responsibility calls for action. The saying draws attention to omission rather than only to obvious misconduct.
Meaning: The saying grants a nurse’s speech a special privilege. It presents a role as allowing talk that might otherwise be restrained, without defining the occasion or subject.
Meaning: Older people who set a poor example can undermine the lessons offered to the young. The saying connects guidance with the conduct of those giving it.
Meaning: The saying judges foolishness in old age especially harshly. It implies that experience should have brought better judgment, though age alone cannot establish what someone has learned.
Meaning: Value a trustworthy person rather than taking their presence for granted. The claim of scarcity intensifies the invitation to appreciate good conduct.
Meaning: The saying suggests that an available chance can tempt someone to steal. It does not make theft inevitable, excuse the person responsible or blame someone for being the target of a wrong.
Meaning: People differ in the judgement they bring to a situation. The wordplay contrasts wise with otherwise, without providing a fair way to divide everyone permanently into two kinds of person.
Meaning: The saying values acting on a considered responsibility despite uncertainty about the result. It encourages integrity, while deciding what ought to be done still requires attention to consequences, competing duties and the people affected.
Meaning: A person can provoke a harmful response from something or someone previously familiar and trusted. The dog image directs attention to one’s own contribution to conflict.
Meaning: The saying presents pain as payment for harmful pleasures. Its wage metaphor makes an unwanted consequence appear to follow an earlier indulgence.
Meaning: Be generous toward others while taking your own conduct seriously. The absolute refusal of self-pardon needs to be tempered with responsibility and self-compassion.