Learning.

Meaning: You can still make a useful improvement after delay or a mistake. Regret about the past need not prevent changing what remains within your control.

Meaning: Revising a view when there is good reason can be a sign of sound judgement. The saying challenges stubbornness, without making every change sensible or every settled conviction foolish.

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: The saying values a little practical judgment above a large amount of learned knowledge. Mother-wit and an older learning-related reading of clergy create the contrast.

Meaning: Avoid adopting an untested change merely for novelty or retaining an old approach after it no longer serves. Judge the evidence and purpose rather than making timing itself the rule.

Meaning: Someone newly taking on a role may begin with energy and a wish to improve things. The new broom pictures that fresh effort, without guaranteeing lasting results or making an established worker inherently less effective.

Meaning: Even a highly respected or capable person can make a mistake. The nodding image makes room for lapses without dismissing the person’s wider achievement or making every error unimportant.

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: 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: People may copy the habits and manner of those they observe. Those setting an example should consider what their conduct invites others to repeat.

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: Experience can deepen a person’s judgement over time. The expression often marks something learned, without proving that greater age automatically brings wisdom or that younger people lack understanding.

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: An experienced person may already understand a familiar tactic or task. The old-fox image values practical knowledge, without proving that age guarantees expertise or that someone with experience has nothing further to learn.

Meaning: Traditional sayings can preserve observations that remain useful to examine. The proverb praises inherited wisdom, while an old saying’s age alone does not establish its truth or make it suitable for every situation.

Meaning: Someone usually considered less capable may sometimes do better than an expert. The saying challenges complacency about relative ability, without treating one comparison as a complete measure of either person.

Meaning: Writing can be a tool for developing and working through ideas. The plough image presents thought as something cultivated through effort, without claiming that writing is the only way to think or contribute.

Meaning: Repeated, attentive practice can improve a skill. Progress usually depends on learning from mistakes and refining your approach, rather than simply repeating the same action many times.

Meaning: Uncertainty can prompt a believer to pray. Going to sea gives that religious response an image of circumstances beyond personal control.

Meaning: Proverbs can supply memorable words for recurring situations in everyday life. Calling them texts suggests short passages people use as starting points for reflection.

Meaning: The available material may not suit the result someone wants to produce. The rough contrast between a purse and an animal’s ear points to a mismatch, rather than proving that people or materials can never change.

Meaning: An unpolished beginning does not settle what someone or something may become. The rough-looking young horse allows for development and care, without guaranteeing future success or excusing problems that need attention now.

Meaning: An honest correction can be more useful than a pleasant deception. The contrast favours truth that helps someone understand a real problem, without making harshness a virtue or assuming that every rebuke is justified.

Meaning: Following a coherent course can lead towards its larger destination. The river image values continuity and direction, without proving that every path reaches a desired result or supplying reliable travel instructions.