Life.

Meaning: Food supports life, but satisfying appetite need not become the whole purpose of living. The reversed wording distinguishes a means from an end.

Meaning: The saying recommends eating a small amount before drinking. Its brief instruction gives an order of activities without explaining the reason or identifying the drink.

Meaning: The saying contrasts freedom in eating with restraint in drinking. Pleasure and measure give two activities different limits rather than one shared rule.

Meaning: The saying praises England as an ideal place for women. Its sweeping national compliment leaves individual circumstances and the standard of comparison unstated.

Meaning: An extreme condition or approach may be difficult to sustain. Consider whether an intense position has a workable future, while avoiding the assumption that every extreme situation will soon end by itself.

Meaning: Retaining part of an ability or benefit can be preferable to losing it altogether. The comparison argues for a remaining good when a complete one is unavailable.

Meaning: The saying portrays a woman’s appearance as the source of her prospects or advantage. It describes an appearance-based judgement, not a fair measure of her abilities, agency or worth.

Meaning: Going farther or seeking another option does not guarantee a better result. The saying cautions against equating change with improvement, without requiring someone to remain with an unsuitable arrangement.

Meaning: The saying presents restrained eating as a way to defy the physician. It makes one habit sound sufficient to escape the need for medical help.

Meaning: A restriction can remain unwelcome even when it comes with valuable benefits. Material rewards do not automatically make a loss of freedom acceptable to the person experiencing it.

Meaning: Losing one opportunity need not mean that every worthwhile possibility is gone. The remaining fish offer perspective, without guaranteeing an equal replacement or making a particular loss unimportant.

Meaning: The saying encourages taking an active part in shaping your circumstances. Its absolute wording overlooks what people cannot control; personal effort influences outcomes without making anyone solely responsible for everything that happens.

Meaning: Circumstances and outcomes can change over time. Avoid treating either present success or present difficulty as a permanent description of what your life must be.

Meaning: The saying expresses hope that everyone will encounter an opportunity. It is an encouraging viewpoint, not a guarantee that opportunities are equally available or that a setback means someone ignored their chance.

Meaning: An attempt to escape one difficulty can lead into a worse one. The frying-pan and fire contrast warns about an unexamined alternative, without implying that staying in the first situation is always the safest or best choice.

Meaning: An undertaking can produce things that were not deliberately intended. The garden’s unplanted growth pictures unexpected additions, without proving that every unplanned development is harmful or beyond anyone’s influence.

Meaning: Expectations need to take difficult circumstances into account. The golden life and iron age contrast warns against expecting ease from an unhelpful setting, without making hardship inevitable or discouraging efforts to improve it.

Meaning: An unwelcome experience can sharpen appreciation of something better. The proverb describes learning through contrast, without making suffering necessary for understanding or giving those who have suffered an automatic authority over everyone else.

Meaning: The saying expresses enthusiasm for something valued, as though more of it must always be welcome. Its exaggeration should be tested: even a good activity or resource can become excessive, poorly timed or unsuitable in a larger amount.

Meaning: Possession gains practical value through use and enjoyment. The gown image invites someone to appreciate what is available to them, without denying other people’s ownership or suggesting that enjoyment removes responsibilities.

Meaning: Death is presented as a shared condition that worldly rank cannot remove. The saying invites humility about status, without claiming that people’s lives, losses or burial circumstances are otherwise identical.

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