Meaning: The saying encourages preserving resources earlier for use later. Its life-stage pattern is an invitation to foresight rather than a rule everyone can follow.
The collection / 9,806 fragments
Wealth.
Explore passages mentioning wealth, money, rich. 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: Use words and resources with consideration rather than spending either without a purpose. The paired restraints favour discretion and proportion, without requiring silence or withholding help that can fairly be given.
Meaning: Risky attempts to recover losses can worsen damage begun by careless spending. The saying describes a harmful sequence rather than every act of speculation.
Meaning: Avoid unnecessary spending, but do not refuse an expense that a real need requires. Good judgement distinguishes a useful saving from an economy that prevents the task from being done properly.
Meaning: Use resources thoughtfully while trusting in divine provision. The saying combines practical care with religious confidence rather than establishing a promised financial return.
Meaning: You can use resources generously without treating them carelessly. Enjoyment and freedom in spending can coexist with attention to what is useful, wanted and likely to be wasted.
Meaning: The saying expresses trust that divine care supports a person who uses resources well. A good spender’s imagined treasurer turns provision into a religious image.
Meaning: The saying suggests that people who use up their resources freely may have less available to lend. Check actual capacity rather than treating spending habits as proof of someone’s generosity or character.
Meaning: The saying warns that spending beyond available means can create severe difficulty. Its fatal imagery is an exaggeration to reject, not a fate to assign to anyone in debt.
Meaning: A small transaction may reveal how someone handles a larger one. The penny and shilling invite attention to habits without making one example conclusive.
Meaning: A careless spender’s apparent economy can create greater costs. The paradox questions savings that preserve the wrong thing while undermining the larger purpose.
Meaning: Having sufficient resources can permit more choice in how they are used. The spice and meal picture an option that depends on what is available.
Meaning: Do not endanger something valuable by refusing a small necessary expense or effort. The contrast between a ship and a little tar warns against a saving that undermines the larger purpose.
Meaning: The saying makes pie depend on sport. It puts an activity before a reward or provision, without defining the kind of sport intended.
Meaning: Wealth can help conceal faults or soften how others judge them. The saying questions unequal scrutiny without proving that every wealthy person has misconduct to hide.
Meaning: A small initial offer may be intended to obtain a much larger benefit. The small-fish and whale contrast asks what the exchange is designed to achieve, without guaranteeing success or treating every modest offer as a trick.
Meaning: The saying imagines someone starving even in a shop full of prepared food. It exaggerates a failure to obtain or use what appears close at hand.
Meaning: The saying makes a lack of stock render gain scarcely worth a chip. It contrasts a supporting resource with a small result judged insufficient.
Meaning: Need changes how an offer is experienced. The full stomach rejecting sweetness and the hungry one welcoming bitterness contrast abundance with urgency.
Meaning: Rushing can create waste, and wasted resources can increase tension at home. The chain of consequences highlights how one avoidable mistake may affect several parts of life.
Meaning: The saying prefers missing supper to waking in debt. It expresses a strong aversion to owing, even at the cost of immediate comfort or provision.
Meaning: Limited means may leave a meal simple to prepare because little is available. The saying recognises scarcity without making it a virtue or an occasion for ridicule.
Meaning: Respect for small resources may contribute to managing larger ones. The threepence and groat exaggerate the connection if they make one habit a test of future worth.
Meaning: People often favour advice that reflects their existing habits. The liking for thrifty sayings invites a question about whether a proverb informs judgment or merely confirms it.
