The collection / 592 fragments
Explore passages mentioning mind, thought, thoughts. Topic suggestions use transparent word matching, not scholarly classification. Editorial meanings and lexical matches are discovery aids, not independent authentication of a quotation.
Meaning: An event may not produce immediate sadness while a person remains unaware of it. The saying links knowledge and feeling, without claiming that unseen harm disappears or that concealment is a proper way to prevent grief.
Meaning: Something already pleasing need not be improved by decoration. The face and paint picture an existing quality that extra embellishment may not help.
Meaning: Obtaining a desired result may involve some inconvenience. Be willing to do the necessary work, while checking that the cost is proportionate and the method is reasonable.
Meaning: An impulsive action may be taken before its purpose or consequences have been considered. The quickly released projectile warns against mistaking a fast response for good judgement, without making speed itself foolish.
Meaning: A restriction can make something seem especially desirable. Sweetness pictures that attraction, without proving that every forbidden thing is valuable or that wanting it makes a rule worth breaking.
Meaning: The saying recommends relinquishing resentment, forgetting a wrong and forgiving as a path towards a happier life. That is an aspiration, not a guarantee or a duty to excuse ongoing harm.
Meaning: The verse separates what can be changed from what cannot, suggesting that worry alone resolves neither. Its useful reading considers available action and unavoidable limits, without claiming that feelings are voluntary or that a wise person never experiences distress.
Meaning: The saying contrasts gladness with what it calls madness, claiming that one seldom leads to the other. It gives a cheerful disposition a protective role without evidence supplied here.
Meaning: The saying pictures restrained grief bursting the heart. Its forceful image expresses the pressure of sorrow kept unspoken or unacknowledged.
Meaning: A person’s words may reveal what occupies their thoughts or feelings. Heart and tongue connect inner concerns with speech, without making every remark a complete or reliable account of what someone believes.
Meaning: A person has direct access to experiences and intentions that others may not see. That perspective deserves attention, while self-knowledge can still be incomplete and benefit from honest reflection or feedback.
Meaning: People often have a favourite interest or recurring subject. Recognising it can help explain what repeatedly attracts their attention without reducing them to that one enthusiasm.
Meaning: The saying claims that hope can make someone more humble than despair does. Expecting something still to come may place a person in a position of waiting or dependence.
Meaning: Hope can sustain someone through a difficult period by leaving room for a better possibility. The saying recognises its emotional value without proving that the hoped-for outcome will arrive.
Meaning: The saying judges the stillest humours as the worst. It makes apparent quietness a negative sign while leaving the intended sense of humours unexplained.
Meaning: A person with an unmet immediate need may be irritable. The rhyme links hunger with anger as an observation about a possible circumstance.
Meaning: An unoccupied mind is pictured as a place where harmful ideas may develop. The saying warns about misdirected attention, but it should not turn rest, unemployment or a lack of visible activity into evidence of wrongdoing or deficient character.
Meaning: Having no clear task does not always feel like having usable free time. The saying’s reversal can describe aimlessness or disorganised attention, but it should not judge someone’s unseen work or imply that rest needs to be earned through productivity.
Meaning: A hurtful remark can provoke another and start an escalating exchange. Notice when a reply is adding to the conflict instead of addressing the matter that caused it.
Meaning: Strong willingness can help someone search for a route through a difficult task. The saying celebrates resolve through exaggeration, rather than proving that determination removes every limit or that an unsuccessful person did not want the result enough.
Editorial context: This favourable comparison still uses a gender stereotype. Evaluate the actual intuition or argument rather than the speaker’s gender.
Meaning: The saying praises women’s instinct by contrasting it with men’s reasoning. Even this favourable comparison relies on a gender stereotype, rather than evaluating a particular intuition or argument on its merits.
Meaning: The saying puts itch and ease together as something that cannot please. It contrasts an irritating urge with comfort in a compact judgment of dissatisfaction.
Meaning: A joke can contain a sincere observation or concern. Listen for what may be meant beneath the humour, while avoiding the assumption that every playful remark reveals a hidden truth.
Meaning: A small amount of useful information may help more than a large amount of reassurance. Comfort matters, but it should not replace facts that let someone understand or address the situation.