Truth.

Meaning: A careful qualification such as hardly ever can prevent an exaggerated claim from becoming false. Use it when it accurately describes the exceptions, rather than as a convenient way to hide them.

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: The saying compares love with a cough as something that may make itself noticeable. It suggests that feelings can show through conduct, but appearances do not prove affection, and neither love nor illness should be inferred confidently from this comparison.

Meaning: The saying urges full disclosure to a minister, physician and lawyer. It gives three trusted roles a shared expectation of being told relevant truths.

Meaning: An impressive covering does not by itself change what is underneath. The armour and hog contrast outward equipment with underlying qualities, but the animal comparison should not be used to dehumanise or ridicule a person.

Meaning: Do not announce success while an important difficulty remains unresolved. The call made before leaving the wood cautions against premature celebration, while allowing recognition of genuine progress on the way.

Meaning: Honesty pursued only for personal advantage is different from honesty valued as a principle. The saying questions a motive that lasts only while truthful conduct appears to pay.

Meaning: The saying treats honesty as a virtue that is not spoiled simply by having more of it. Its exaggerated language praises integrity, while truthful conduct still requires care about privacy, timing and how words affect others.

Meaning: Displaying the signs of a role does not prove someone can carry it out. Blowing the horn and being a hunter distinguish appearance from demonstrated ability, without making every visible symbol misleading.

Meaning: Do not present yourself as committed to incompatible sides without addressing the conflict. Hounds and hare give opposed directions to the same person, without requiring rigid loyalty when circumstances or duties change.

Meaning: Unwelcome news can seem to travel quickly and attract immediate attention. The saying warns about that momentum, without proving that bad reports always spread faster or that speed makes a report true.

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: 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 falsehood told as a joke can still cause real trouble when someone believes it or is hurt by it. Calling it a joke does not remove the need to consider its effects.

Meaning: Good judgement includes readiness to question your own conclusion. The saying values self-checking, without requiring constant indecision or treating confidence as proof that someone has failed to think carefully.

Meaning: Fair dealing and honesty are presented as mutually supporting qualities. The mirrored words connect truthful conduct with treating people justly.

Meaning: Dishonesty may gain a short-term advantage while damaging trust that matters later. Consider the lasting consequences of a deceptive act, rather than judging it only by the immediate result.

Meaning: The speaker takes a cynical view of society, dividing people into those who deceive and those who are deceived. The division expresses distrust rather than a reliable census.

Meaning: A dispute between people doing wrong may reveal what they concealed from others. The saying imagines harmed people recovering their goods through that exposure, but it should not promise recovery or make encouraging a quarrel a sound or safe strategy.

Meaning: A spoken commitment can create an obligation that is difficult to undo. Consider what you are agreeing to before making a promise that later effort or regret may not easily release.

Editorial context: This mocks women’s speech as continual or trivial. Gender is not evidence that a contribution lacks value.

Meaning: The saying compares a woman’s speech to a lamb’s moving tail, mocking it as continual or trivial chatter. It is a sexist dismissal of speech, not an assessment of what anyone actually says.

Meaning: Rules may be enforced against less powerful people while stronger ones escape scrutiny. The flies and hornets criticise unequal accountability, without establishing what any present law says or proving that a particular enforcement decision is unfair.

Meaning: The spider’s-web comparison criticises rules that catch the less powerful while allowing powerful people to escape their effects. It raises a question about unequal accountability, rather than proving that every institution works this way or settling a particular legal allegation.

Meaning: A lie may travel less securely than its teller expects because evidence can expose it. The short-wing image warns about the limits of deception, without promising that every lie will be discovered quickly or automatically.