Work.

Meaning: Good material can be spoiled by how it is prepared. The saying contrasts a valued provision with disappointing handling, using God and the devil as exaggerated figures rather than establishing who causes a particular meal or mistake.

Meaning: Support can become easy to find after the important work has already been done. The christening image contrasts late willingness to take a role with the help needed earlier, without making every late offer worthless.

Meaning: Follow through on the good you propose, and do not make every helpful act an occasion for self-praise. Let concern lead to useful conduct rather than only to declarations about your intentions.

Meaning: Good work and quick completion can be difficult to combine when the task needs care. The saying asks whether speed is compromising the result, without making slow work automatically good or prompt work automatically careless.

Meaning: An acceptable option can still be surpassed by a better one. The saying encourages comparison beyond mere adequacy, while leaving room for the costs of change and the practical value of something already good enough.

Meaning: Plenty may encourage careless use, while scarcity can encourage caution about what is available. The harvest comparison describes possible changes in behaviour, without proving that either condition determines someone’s character or that hardship is desirable.

Editorial context: This makes women’s reputation depend on confinement and constant work. Freedom and rest are not signs of dishonesty.

Meaning: This verse makes women’s good reputation depend on staying at home and working constantly. It expresses a restrictive ideal of obedience and domestic labour, not a fair measure of honesty or worth.

Meaning: Failing to ask for something that is due or needed can mean not receiving it. The saying encourages a clear request instead of relying on silent expectation.

Meaning: The saying connects divine help with human action. It can encourage participation in a hoped-for result, but it should not make faith a guarantee of success or imply that people who need assistance have failed to use their hands well enough.

Meaning: Pleasant promises are insubstantial when no useful action follows. Look for the work that supports an assurance rather than treating an agreeable statement as enough.

Meaning: Do not take on more than you can manage at once. Match commitments to actual capacity instead of treating every available opportunity as something you must accept.

Meaning: Work with the relevant characteristics of a task rather than forcing a method that fights them. The timber’s grain supplies the image, without making every existing arrangement natural, fixed or beyond improvement.

Meaning: A future provision may arrive too late to meet a present need. The growing grass and starving horse contrast an expected resource with the time when it is required, without making every long-term plan useless.

Meaning: The saying pictures a heavily used route as unsuitable for grass. As a metaphor, it can connect repeated activity with what has little room to establish itself.

Meaning: A prominent role depends on other people and the relationships around it. The saying questions the idea of greatness as wholly self-sufficient, without treating social ranks as fixed or calling less visible people less valuable.

Meaning: A large undertaking needs conditions capable of supporting its scale. Check whether the available resources and setting fit the project before committing to its size.

Meaning: A useful partial result can be better than receiving nothing. Recognise what a smaller provision contributes without pretending it fully meets the need.

Meaning: The saying uses several ways of killing a dog as an image of multiple means to an end. A humane application concerns alternative methods for a harmless task.

Meaning: Those who initiate a task may differ from those who obtain its result or recognition. The small and large dogs invite attention to complementary contributions and unequal rewards, without making either contribution automatically more valuable.

Meaning: Do not make commitments that depend on a result you have not secured. The hare’s skin still needing to be caught pictures counting an uncertain benefit as though it were already yours to promise.

Meaning: A worthwhile result can still contain minor imperfections. The harvest and thistles suggest appreciating substantial success without letting small defects eclipse it, while leaving room to address defects that genuinely matter.

Meaning: Rushing can slow the overall task when it creates errors or rework. Aim for effective progress rather than assuming that a hurried pace always produces an earlier finish.

Meaning: Rushing too much can create mistakes that waste the time or resources you hoped to save. A controlled pace may complete a task more efficiently.

Meaning: Take precautions where the difficulty is coming from. Pulling a hat down on the windward side pictures a response fitted to the actual challenge, rather than preparation made without regard to conditions.