Truth.

Meaning: Well-founded praise can gain lasting recognition. Roots and growth picture an appreciation that develops because others find it credible.

Meaning: Conduct can provide a better basis for judging someone’s contribution than their own praise or criticism of themselves. The saying favours evidence in action, while honest self-description, reflection and asking for help still have a useful place.

Meaning: Do not make exaggerated announcements of your own merits. Sounding a trumpet turns self-praise into a loud public performance.

Meaning: Promises can be fragile when they are made without care or commitment. Treat an assurance as something that needs dependable follow-through, rather than as a completed result.

Meaning: The quality of an idea, promise or product is best assessed by how it performs in practice. A convincing description is less useful than relevant evidence of the actual result.

Meaning: The phrase appeals to an old proverb without naming it. It borrows the authority of a familiar saying while leaving the actual words and claim unstated.

Meaning: Resources can give someone confidence or influence in speaking. The full purse is pictured as enabling a voice that might otherwise hesitate or be ignored.

Meaning: An impressive or sacred quotation can be used to support a purpose its words do not fairly justify. The devil’s quotation warns against relying on authority alone, without making every use of Scripture insincere.

Meaning: Ignoring a sound reason may leave a person facing consequences that make it harder to dismiss. The personified reason warns against avoiding evidence, without proving that every unwelcome result validates someone’s earlier advice.

Meaning: Knowingly accepting the benefit of wrongdoing can make a person complicit in it. Responsibility may extend beyond the person who performs the original act.

Meaning: Religious belief should guide conduct rather than be used to hide it. The two uses of a cloak contrast a genuine purpose with a convenient disguise.

Meaning: An honest correction can be more useful than a pleasant deception. The contrast favours truth that helps someone understand a real problem, without making harshness a virtue or assuming that every rebuke is justified.

Meaning: A story can gain details or emphasis as it passes from one teller to another. The phrase never loses uses exaggeration to warn about embellishment, without proving that every retelling is false.

Meaning: Place responsibility or criticism where the evidence shows it belongs. The correctly saddled horse challenges blame attached to the wrong person, while allowing that several people or a shared process may contribute.

Meaning: Sensitive information can give another person power over its owner. The saying warns about disclosure, while exaggerating the resulting dependence as enslavement.

Meaning: Directly witnessing something can make it more convincing than hearing a claim about it. Seeing a result may help resolve doubt, though appearances still need interpretation.

Meaning: Claiming your own excellence does not by itself give others a reason to trust that claim. Offer relevant evidence or let others assess the work, while recognising that truthful self-description can be useful.

Meaning: Do not sacrifice something real and useful for an appearance or promise that lacks substance. Check what is actually available before letting an attractive impression displace a sound option.

Meaning: The saying opposes sighing with sending. It replaces an expression of feeling with an action, while leaving what should be sent and to whom unstated.

Meaning: This saying treats a lack of objection as agreement, but that inference can be unreliable. Silence may reflect fear, uncertainty, lack of opportunity or simply not having responded.

Meaning: Almost anyone can become the subject of a harmful false report. The saying recognises vulnerability to slander rather than treating accusation as proof of wrongdoing.

Meaning: A harmful false report can leave a lasting mark even after the words stop circulating. The score pictures reputational damage that is difficult to erase.

Meaning: A noticeable sign may suggest an underlying cause worth investigating. The smoke-and-fire comparison should prompt checking, not make rumour, suspicion or an ambiguous clue sufficient proof that a person has done something wrong.

Meaning: Someone may dismiss a desired thing after finding they cannot obtain it. The unreachable grapes picture a change in the account of its value, without proving that every negative judgement after disappointment is dishonest.