The collection / 8,152 fragments
Explore passages mentioning wisdom, wise. 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: Asking for advice achieves little if someone refuses to consider using it. The saying questions the purpose of the request, while leaving room to examine advice critically and reject recommendations that are unsuitable or wrong.
Meaning: Advice offered after an irreversible action cannot prevent what has already happened. Give relevant guidance while someone can still use it, and distinguish prevention from help with what comes next.
Meaning: An undertaking with known hazards may require accepting some exposure to them. Battle and wounds make that point forcefully, without requiring someone to take an unreasonable risk or treating caution as cowardice.
Meaning: Preserving available resources can be more useful than hoping for a miraculous way to obtain wealth. The saying praises avoiding needless loss, while recognising that saving depends on having something left after genuine needs are met.
Meaning: Purchases often bring unwanted material along with what is wanted. The saying contrasts stones, bones and shells with an approving claim that ale contains only the desired purchase.
Meaning: No individual can do everything. The saying recognises limits of skill, time and capacity, encouraging cooperation or priorities without deciding that a particular person cannot learn, develop or take on a new challenge.
Meaning: The saying warns that anger from a powerful person may have serious consequences. Recognise a difference in power without assuming that authority makes anger justified or requires silent acceptance of unfair treatment.
Meaning: You cannot fully judge another person’s difficulties from what is visible. Listen before assuming that their task or situation is easy to bear.
Meaning: The saying treats April and May as decisive months for what the rest of the year will yield. Keys picture their conditions as opening or closing later possibilities.
Meaning: A request made at a higher level leaves room to reduce it later. The saying describes flexibility in an opening demand, while its advice needs limits: an inflated request can undermine trust or ignore what the other person can reasonably offer.
Meaning: Let your available resources help set your spending. A desirable purchase still needs to fit what you can reasonably afford alongside your other commitments.
Meaning: A reasonable request may open an opportunity that remains closed if you never ask. The possibility of refusal need not prevent a polite enquiry.
Meaning: Constant noise can get in the way of useful activity. The braying ass is an image of effort spent on display rather than the task, without proving that quiet people are always more capable or that speaking is wasted work.
Meaning: People can overestimate the standing or recognition they deserve. The animal comparison mocks self-importance, but differences in rank or background do not establish differences in personal worth.
Meaning: People without direct responsibility can imagine managing it perfectly. The imaginary wives and children expose the ease of confident advice before experience, without proving that unmarried or childless people cannot offer useful observations.
Meaning: When every available option is poor, choosing the best may still leave a poor result. The saying recognises a constrained comparison, inviting scrutiny of the options without proving that no improvement or alternative can be found.
Meaning: An attempt to cheer someone can be unsuitable for what they are experiencing. The bagpipe pictures a noisy diversion offered during trouble, encouraging attention to the person’s needs rather than assuming that entertainment always helps.
Meaning: The saying links acting as bail with paying for it. It warns that guaranteeing or supporting another person’s obligation may carry a cost.
Meaning: A measure can register one property without recognising the differences that matter for another judgement. Equal weight does not mean equal value; choose evidence suited to the question.
Meaning: A task is soon finished when little remains to be done. The bald-head image emphasises the small amount of work, rather than establishing that quick completion proves unusual skill or that appearances reveal a person’s abilities.
Meaning: Avoid exposing yourself to a foreseeable difficulty without suitable protection. Bare feet and thorns make preparation concrete, without blaming someone who lacks resources or assuming that every hazard can be prevented.
Meaning: An imperfect resource is compared with losing the underlying capacity altogether. The saying can encourage appreciation of what remains useful, but its bodily comparison must not become a demand that someone accept inadequate support or feel grateful for hardship.
Meaning: When a choice has already turned out poorly, look for the best workable next step. You may still reduce the loss or recover something useful.
Meaning: Pause before accepting an offer that promises an unusually large advantage. The bargain and the pause should match in scale: the more attractive the proposal, the more useful it may be to examine its terms.