The collection / 134 fragments
Explore passages mentioning patience, patient. Topic suggestions use transparent word matching, not scholarly classification. Editorial meanings and lexical matches are discovery aids, not independent authentication of a quotation.
Meaning: The saying withholds certainty about a hop yield until a named calendar point has passed. It emphasises waiting before deciding whether the hoped-for provision exists.
Meaning: Even a capable person may benefit from a timely prompt or encouragement. The good horse and spur distinguish ability from readiness to act, without making harsh treatment or constant pressure the way to obtain good work.
Meaning: A pressing need can make another person’s work seem too slow. The hungry diner judging the cook points to impatience shaping an assessment, without dismissing legitimate delay or blaming someone for being hungry.
Meaning: A worthwhile pause can belong to the journey rather than interrupt its purpose. The good-inn image values suitable rest or provision, without recommending a particular destination or claiming every detour is beneficial.
Meaning: Keeping a portion of what is available can help bridge the interval before another supply arrives. The saying values continuity, while a reserve is only possible when there is enough to retain and cannot make a future supply certain.
Meaning: A larger task can be approached through successive manageable steps. Notice progress through the sequence, without assuming that repetition alone will reach every goal.
Meaning: The saying uses lawyers going to heaven as an image for proceeding gently or slowly. Its comparison has a possible satirical edge, while the exact tone is not supplied.
Meaning: Saying less can sometimes let a minor dispute settle sooner. Restraint may prevent extra remarks from turning an awkward moment into a larger quarrel.
Meaning: Small gains can add up when they are retained over time. Notice cumulative contributions rather than assuming that only a large immediate result can be useful.
Meaning: Small additions repeated regularly can build a larger total. The purse image emphasises accumulation over time, without guaranteeing that every contribution is worthwhile or that everyone has resources available to set aside.
Meaning: A long-awaited event may eventually arrive, making the wait feel resolved. The saying expresses anticipation or relief, without proving that patience guarantees every desired result.
Meaning: A difficult course may eventually change direction, like a long lane reaching a turn. The saying offers hope for change without proving that every hardship will soon resolve.
Meaning: Even a period that feels exceptionally long or difficult will pass. The saying offers patience by reminding you that the present strain is not the whole future.
Meaning: A delayed result may still have value when it eventually arrives. The saying counters treating lateness as complete loss, while timing can remain essential and an eventual arrival does not automatically repair every consequence of delay.
Meaning: A measured pace can suit work that needs time to develop. The slow-fire image values an appropriate process over haste, without establishing a brewing instruction or implying that delay is always better than timely action.
Meaning: Human effort has limits; the speaker places the final outcome within God’s will. Doing what one can is distinguished from controlling everything that happens.
Meaning: The saying links March wind and April rain with a beautiful May. It gives early weather a role in preparing a pleasing later season.
Meaning: The saying claims that medlars become good only when rotten. In the checked horticultural context, their later softening offers a qualified reading of the apparent reversal.
Meaning: The saying attributes ripe medlars to time and straw. It makes waiting and a named material partners in bringing a fruit to a later stage.
Meaning: A difficult situation may improve with time. The rhyme expresses hope that the current problem is not the final state of things.
Meaning: Problems can arrive quickly in large amounts yet take slow, incremental work to resolve. The unequal measures dramatise that imbalance, without predicting that every setback will be severe or that recovery has a fixed pace.
Meaning: Something small or difficult to distinguish may be extremely hard to find among a large amount of material. The needle image describes a search problem, rather than proving that the search is impossible.
Meaning: Inactivity can feel surprisingly demanding when someone is waiting, uncertain or unable to act. The saying overturns the assumption that doing nothing is always easy, without making rest wrong or presenting everyone’s experience as the same.
Meaning: A substantial task may need repeated effort rather than one attempt. The oak and single blow picture the scale of the work, without guaranteeing that repetition alone will succeed or giving instructions for cutting down a tree.