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: The saying links sound judgement with peace, and peace with conditions for prosperity. It presents a hopeful connection, not a guarantee that careful decisions will end conflict or provide plenty for everyone.
Meaning: The saying places reverence for God at the start of wisdom. It expresses a religious account of learning and moral judgment rather than a universal test of intelligence.
Meaning: Learning can emerge from recognising a mistake. Wisdom riding on folly’s ruins pictures improved judgment supported by an earlier failure.
Meaning: Good judgement may matter more than possessing a large amount of money. The comparison values how a person understands and acts, without making hardship desirable or dismissing the practical importance of resources.
Meaning: A person may choose not to dwell on something genuinely unavailable. The saying values directing attention towards workable possibilities, without claiming that every limit is fixed or that disappointment should simply be dismissed.
Meaning: Wishing for a result does not by itself make it happen. A hope becomes more useful when connected to practical action or realistic conditions.
Meaning: A wish alone does not supply what is needed. Turning wishes into birds makes an impossible abundance expose the gap between desire and provision.
Meaning: Wishing does not turn an unmet need into a resource. Imaginary butter-cakes make the saying’s contrast between hope and actual provision tangible.
Meaning: A quick insight can make an idea suddenly clear, like a flash of lightning. The saying celebrates mental brightness, without treating speed as a complete measure of understanding or making every clever remark correct.
Meaning: Cleverness can do harm when directed towards an unsuitable purpose. Judge how intelligence or humour is being used, rather than treating an ingenious remark or method as good in itself.
Meaning: Cleverness needs sound judgement about how it is used. The saying distinguishes an impressive mental tool from the care required to apply it, without assigning wisdom permanently to one kind of person.
Meaning: A lesson gained through difficulty may cost more than its benefit justifies. The saying questions praising every painful experience as useful learning, rather than denying that experience can improve judgement.
Meaning: A loss of outward strength need not erase remembered patterns. The wolf’s teeth and memory contrast reduced capacity with what may remain familiar.
Meaning: Public fascination often fades. The short lifespan assigned to a wonder reminds the reader that intense attention may not endure.
Meaning: One observation is not enough to establish a wider seasonal conclusion. The single woodcock pictures evidence that may be suggestive without being decisive.
Meaning: The saying praises a courtship that reaches agreement quickly. A careful reading questions whether speed actually serves the people involved.
Meaning: An attempt to gain an advantage can leave the seeker worse off. Going for wool and returning shorn reverses the expected benefit.
Meaning: Someone who understands the situation may need only a brief hint to act. Concise guidance can be enough when it connects with knowledge the listener already has.
Meaning: Words spoken in a passing moment may not become lasting commitments. The evening wind carrying them away pictures the fragility of an unconfirmed statement.
Meaning: A larger quantity of speech does not itself provide a required resource or result. The unfilled bushel questions substituting repeated words for a practical contribution, without making every long discussion unproductive.
Meaning: People can be surprisingly unaware of others’ daily conditions. Looking beyond your familiar circle can challenge assumptions about how life is organised or what is easy.
Meaning: The saying offers hope that a severe difficulty will improve. Its confidence that the worst must turn better is reassurance rather than a reliable prediction.
Meaning: An undertaking may fail at a weaker part. The cart-wheel’s spoke encourages attention to what the whole depends on.
Meaning: An opportunity refused while available may be absent when later wanted. The reversal of might and would makes changed timing central to the warning.