The collection / 22,493 fragments
Explore passages mentioning truth, true. Topic suggestions use transparent word matching, not scholarly classification. Reviewed editorial meanings may also connect entries to this topic; those assignments are labelled separately from word matching.
Meaning: Unexpected quiet is treated as a reason to suspect children have done something wrong. The saying plays on an adult’s expectation of activity, but silence alone is not evidence of misconduct; a calm, curious check is fairer than an accusation.
Meaning: Something presented as clear is actually confusing or difficult to understand. The comparison is usually ironic: mud supplies the opposite of transparency, so the phrase can gently or sharply challenge an inadequate explanation.
Meaning: Refraining from unnecessary speech can prevent an avoidable mistake or disclosure. The closed-mouth image values discretion in a particular moment, without making silence always wise or forbidding questions, objections and requests for help.
Editorial context: This is a sexist claim about confidentiality. Judge a person’s conduct rather than assuming women cannot keep information private.
Meaning: The saying mocks women as unable to keep information private unless they do not know it. This is a sexist accusation about confidentiality, not a reliable judgement of any individual.
Meaning: An open acknowledgement can reduce the force of an accusation by making the relevant facts clear. It does not guarantee that criticism ends or require accepting an accusation that is untrue.
Meaning: Acknowledging a mistake can begin repairing its effect. An honest admission matters because it creates room for responsibility, though further action may still be needed.
Meaning: Acknowledging a fault openly can help someone face it and seek repair. The saying values honesty about what happened, without requiring every private matter to be disclosed or promising that confession alone resolves its consequences.
Meaning: Acting in a way one can honestly defend may provide steadiness under scrutiny. The clear conscience is pictured as a reliable advantage, without making someone’s confidence proof that their actions were fair or beyond question.
Meaning: Contentment can make what someone already has feel sufficient. The transforming-stone comparison values satisfaction, without claiming that an attitude removes deprivation or that people should stop seeking necessary improvements.
Meaning: Distance can change what news reaches you, so information about a place may become more noticeable elsewhere. The saying presents a paradox about circulation and perspective, rather than establishing that distant reports are more accurate.
Meaning: The saying contrasts idealised expectations during courtship with everyday experience in marriage. It invites attention to ordinary responsibilities before a commitment, but its gendered and absolute framing should not imply that marriage inevitably disappoints or that affection is merely illusion.
Meaning: Friendly names and claims of closeness do not excuse dishonest treatment. The wordplay contrasts being called cousin with being deceived, asking that warmth in a relationship be matched by straightforward conduct.
Meaning: The saying values honesty above other skills, presenting trustworthy conduct as an achievement in itself. Technical ability is more useful when people can also rely on how it is exercised.
Meaning: Clever avoidance does not turn an inaccurate account into a truthful one. Consider whether an answer addresses the substance of the question rather than merely finding words that sidestep it.
Meaning: Damaged trust or reputation may be harder to repair than to preserve. The broken glass pictures that fragility, warning about consequences without claiming that one mistake permanently destroys someone’s credibility or makes rebuilding trust impossible.
Meaning: People owed something may remember an obligation more keenly than those who must meet it. Do not assume that your forgetfulness means the other person has forgotten too.
Meaning: Much noise or visible effort may produce little useful result. The contrast between a great cry and little wool asks what has actually been achieved, rather than treating a dramatic presentation as evidence of substance.
Meaning: The expression dismisses a story as unlikely to persuade someone who examines it closely. Its hearing-related image is a harsh rhetorical device, not a reason to demean people with hearing differences.
Meaning: Do not exaggerate a fault or make an already troubling situation seem worse than the evidence shows. The devil supplies an extreme image, but the practical point is proportionate judgement rather than denying real wrongdoing.
Meaning: The saying suggests people sometimes speak truth while drunk. Often leaves room for variation, but the claim does not make intoxication a test of honesty.
Meaning: A person may say while drinking what they usually hold back. The saying contrasts restraint with a moment in which private thoughts are voiced.
Meaning: A claim may be accepted more readily when the action described seems easy to imagine. The saying warns that apparent feasibility can encourage belief, without making an easy task proof that a reported event actually happened.
Meaning: Something restless or conspicuous is difficult to conceal for long. The eel-in-a-sack image suggests that what is hidden may make itself noticeable, but it should not be treated as proof that every secret will emerge or that concealment can be detected reliably.
Meaning: A flattering account may omit the faults and difficulties needed for an accurate picture. The epitaph comparison warns about selective praise, without making every memorial dishonest or treating harshness as a guarantee of truth.