The collection / 675 fragments
Explore passages mentioning time, hour. Topic suggestions use transparent word matching, not scholarly classification. Editorial meanings and lexical matches are discovery aids, not independent authentication of a quotation.
Meaning: Use an available opportunity while it remains suitable. Time passing makes some choices harder to return to, but the saying does not require accepting every invitation or acting before enough is understood.
Meaning: Time and changing conditions continue whether or not you are ready. Some opportunities require acting within a real window instead of expecting the world to pause.
Meaning: Even an intense grief may change with time. The saying offers hope for easing, while its sweeping claim should not impose an outcome or deadline.
Meaning: Experience over time can temper youthful confidence. The rider image presents youth as being trained, but needs limits on its assumption that age must subdue people.
Meaning: The saying pairs timely blossom with timely ripening. It carries an appropriate beginning into an expectation of an appropriate later result.
Meaning: A person can choose silence when speaking would be poorly timed or unhelpful. The saying invites judgment about an occasion rather than a permanent duty to remain quiet.
Meaning: Allowing extra time may be preferable to missing a moment that matters. The exaggerated comparison stresses the consequences of lateness, without making three hours early a sensible rule for every appointment.
Meaning: Abruptly disrupting an established source of stability can be harmful. The old tree’s removal supplies a warning that should remain a metaphor rather than a rule about people’s age.
Meaning: The saying pictures the days lengthening by a cock’s stride at Twelfth Day. A tiny animal movement stands for a modest seasonal change.
Meaning: A person’s presence and attention have limits when commitments overlap. The saying asks for a workable arrangement, without making all delegation, remote participation or shared responsibility impossible.
Meaning: The saying postpones something until two Sundays occur in one week, then explains this as never. It expresses refusal or impossibility through a deliberately unavailable date.
Meaning: A troubled beginning need not prevent a person from developing good judgment and conduct. The saying leaves room for growth beyond an early label.
Meaning: The saying expects a good goose to lay by Valentine’s Day, with two earlier eggs making it rewarding to its keeper. A calendar milestone is paired with a judgment of usefulness.
Meaning: Something once pleasant can become especially unpleasant when it changes. Sweet wine becoming sharp vinegar pictures a striking reversal.
Meaning: Promises made in a crisis can be forgotten once the pressure passes. Storm and calm contrast the urgency that prompts a vow with the ease that tests its durability.
Meaning: Waiting can feel slower when you constantly monitor the thing you are waiting for. Redirecting your attention may make an unavoidable delay easier to tolerate, without changing its actual duration.
Meaning: Use can cause wear that needs attention. The saying warns about deterioration while overlooking ways that use can also improve skill, familiarity or value.
Meaning: A major commitment benefits from judgment and preparation. The saying makes premature marriage a severe warning, but its prediction of lifelong failure is unjustified.
Meaning: Enough room can prevent strain caused by an arrangement that is too tight. The wide and narrow contrast can prompt attention to fit rather than appearance alone.
Meaning: The saying imagines youthful recklessness being finished early enough for a more settled life. Its seed image does not make harmful conduct a necessary stage of growth.
Meaning: The saying predicts that Candlemas wind direction will persist until May ends. A single calendar observation is extended across several months.
Meaning: Occasional unexpected gains may not provide a dependable basis for ongoing needs. The windfall image questions reliance on benefits that arrive by chance.
Meaning: The saying expects a good winter to lead to a good summer. It carries a favourable judgment from one season into the next without defining what good means.
Meaning: A demanding period reveals whether earlier preparation was adequate. Winter tests what summer stored, connecting present need with prior provision.