The collection / 847 fragments
Explore passages mentioning wisdom, wise. Topic suggestions use transparent word matching, not scholarly classification. Editorial meanings and lexical matches are discovery aids, not independent authentication of a quotation.
Meaning: Leaving a confrontation can sometimes serve better than trying to overcome it by force. Heels represent getting away and hands represent fighting or struggling, without determining what any particular emergency requires.
Meaning: A position that offers advantages can also expose someone to serious consequences. Precipices around a high place warn against overlooking its dangerous edges, rather than treating prominence as proof of security.
Meaning: A conspicuous position can receive pressure from several directions. The hills exposed to wind picture the demands that visibility may attract, without proving that prominence must cause a fall or that every request deserves an immediate response.
Meaning: Judgement that helps others should also be considered in one’s own choices. The saying questions advice disconnected from the adviser’s conduct, without making personal advantage the only purpose of wisdom.
Meaning: The saying gives one knock to the hoop and another to the barrel. Its balanced image can suggest alternating attention between two related sides rather than striking only one.
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: An irrelevant feature of appearance should not make a capable person or useful thing seem inferior. The horse’s colour challenges a superficial judgment, while leaving relevant evidence about suitability open to examination.
Meaning: A resource should be considered together with the support needed to keep it useful. The horse carrying its own provisions pictures a capability that does not consume all the effort of those relying on it.
Meaning: You can provide an opportunity or support, but you cannot make another person choose to use it. Their motivation and decision remain outside your full control.
Meaning: An already completed undertaking may include useful details that would take effort to provide separately. The finished house pictures the value of work already done.
Meaning: An occasional shortage of space may be preferable to the continuing burden of having more than is needed. The house image compares a temporary inconvenience with a lasting commitment, rather than prescribing an ideal home size.
Meaning: A distant perspective can make a present disagreement seem less permanent or important. The hundred-year comparison invites proportion, while it must not erase consequences for people living now or imply that nothing deserves care because time will pass.
Meaning: The expression presents a larger commitment as no worse than a smaller one when their consequences are assumed equal. It can announce boldness, but that assumption needs scrutiny; beginning something does not justify escalating its cost or harm.
Meaning: Satisfying a basic need may be simpler than satisfying elaborate preferences. Daintiness represents selectiveness or luxury beyond the need itself.
Editorial context: This assigns wisdom and gentleness by marital gender. Both qualities can be expected of every participant.
Meaning: The saying assigns wisdom to the husband and gentleness to the wife as complementary ideals. It is a gendered allocation of virtues, not evidence that either quality belongs only to one partner.
Meaning: Doing nothing can be preferable to spending effort on something harmful or unsuitable. The saying questions activity for its own sake, without making all inactivity wise or dismissing necessary work.
Meaning: Avoiding a worthwhile task can leave its benefits unrealised. The sweeping wording should be limited to neglect, rather than applied to every period of rest.
Meaning: Not understanding something does not establish that it is wrong. Examine the reasons or ask for an explanation before turning a gap in your knowledge into a verdict about the thing itself.
Meaning: A run of favourable outcomes can leave someone dazzled and less alert to limits. The saying questions judgment formed only under easy circumstances.
Meaning: When trouble has subsided, avoid needlessly restarting it. Sleeping ill luck pictures a problem that is temporarily quiet and best left undisturbed.
Meaning: A small concession can encourage someone to ask for much more. Make the scope of an agreement clear without assuming that every request for additional help shows bad intentions.
Meaning: Too many simultaneous undertakings can leave some without the attention they need. The cooling-irons image asks whether active commitments fit available capacity, without requiring everyone to work on only one thing at a time.
Meaning: Enjoyment pushed too far can become unpleasant. Surfeiting turns a welcome experience into an excess that defeats its original pleasure.
Meaning: Do not make a settled judgement from an initial appearance alone. Gather relevant information before deciding, while still responding appropriately to a clear immediate concern.