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: Something previously active may be easier to revive than something never started. The partly-burnt wood suggests a remaining disposition or trace, without proving that old feelings, disputes or habits will inevitably return.
Meaning: Spending heavily on present comforts can leave fewer resources for later purposes. A generous kitchen is contrasted with a small remainder.
Meaning: Useful information may lose much of its value when it arrives after the decision or action it was needed for. Consider timing as well as accuracy when sharing what others need to know.
Meaning: The saying claims that after Lammas corn ripens equally by night and day. It marks a later growth stage through a calendar observance.
Meaning: The saying claims land never lacks someone to inherit it. It pictures a valuable possession as certain to attract a successor.
Meaning: The saying claims law differs between morning and night. It presents a striking change over a single day without identifying a rule or the reason for the difference.
Meaning: The value of a life cannot be measured only by its duration. Consider the quality, care and meaning within lived experience rather than treating a number of years as the whole achievement.
Meaning: Even a very long life has an end. The superlative “longest” removes the possibility of escaping mortality simply by outliving others.
Meaning: A period of careless or wrongful living can have consequences that last longer than the period itself. One year and seven years create an exaggerated contrast in duration.
Meaning: A life can be valued for how it is lived as well as for its duration. Living well gives the idea of a long life an ethical or qualitative meaning.
Meaning: A protective step comes too late to prevent a loss that has already happened. Take care before a foreseeable problem rather than relying on a remedy afterwards.
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: 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: Early promise does not guarantee later good judgment. The two ages make a contrast between how someone first appears and how they may develop.
Meaning: The saying contrasts weather whitening clothes with darkening the complexion of people outdoors. It ties seasonal exposure to appearance in a gendered image.
Meaning: The saying warns against marrying in May because older sayings call it unlucky. Its appeal to inherited words is not evidence that the month harms a relationship.
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 expects a cold May to be followed by plenty of corn and hay. The short rhyme makes an uncomfortable condition a promise of provision.
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: 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: The saying claims that the number of March mists matches the number of May frosts. It offers a countable early sign for a later event.
Meaning: The saying assigns good or bad outcomes to the weekday of an undertaking. Its list promises wealth, health or misfortune from timing alone.