The collection / 14,814 fragments
Explore passages mentioning work, labour. 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: A decisive first step can provide an advantage in a difficult undertaking. Read the battle image figuratively; initiative is not a justification for violence, coercion or rushing past necessary preparation.
Meaning: People are attended to in the order they arrive or apply. This describes one allocation rule, whose fairness depends on access, urgency and the purpose of the service.
Meaning: Something powerful can be useful when kept within appropriate bounds and destructive when it controls the situation. Consider both its value and the consequences of losing control over it.
Meaning: Obtaining a desired result may involve some inconvenience. Be willing to do the necessary work, while checking that the cost is proportionate and the method is reasonable.
Meaning: An attractive possibility is not yet an achieved result. The good fish still needing to be caught distinguishes what might be valuable from what is actually available to use.
Meaning: A small success can encourage someone to continue an undertaking. The fishing image captures the motivation of a first result, while one success does not establish that repetition is worthwhile or guarantee that another result will follow.
Meaning: An early start is presented as a sign of diligence and a chance to make progress. Five o’clock gives the general praise of effort a memorable concrete hour.
Meaning: Prepare the means to do a task instead of waiting passively for everything to arrive. The tools come first, while the materials are pictured as coming through providence.
Meaning: When many people take from the same limited resource, their combined demands can exhaust it. Consider the total burden, not only how small each individual request appears.
Meaning: An impressive display is different from performing the demanding task itself. The contrast between flourishing and fighting asks whether apparent readiness is supported by practical ability, without treating modest presentation as proof of competence.
Meaning: An ambition needs the means that make it possible. Identify the necessary tools, abilities or support instead of expecting desire alone to carry out the task.
Meaning: A poorly considered arrangement can create difficulty even for someone competent. The stools-and-stumbling image directs attention to avoidable obstacles, without making intelligence a guarantee against mistakes or an excuse to insult others.
Meaning: A later participant may benefit from work or expense already borne by someone else. Building and buying contrast creating an asset with acquiring the completed result.
Meaning: Thinking ahead can prevent effort that would otherwise be wasted. Before working harder, check whether a better sequence, preparation or decision would make the task easier to complete.
Meaning: Being first or already well placed can help someone obtain an opportunity. The leading-dog image values position and timely action, without proving that the first participant always wins or that speed outweighs preparation and fairness.
Meaning: Do not remove what a later result needs in order to develop. Plucking the flower while wanting the fruit pictures a short-term action that defeats the benefit being sought.
Meaning: Worthwhile progress often requires effort or inconvenience. The saying should not be used to demand suffering or assume that pain proves an activity is useful.
Meaning: Simply waiting to be provided for can leave a need unmet. The open mouth exaggerates passive expectation into a posture that achieves nothing.
Meaning: The saying recommends dry conditions for sowing and wet conditions for setting plants. It makes the distinction between two tasks the basis of a remembered rule.
Meaning: An isolated good contribution may need others to form a coherent result. One flower does not make the joined sequence of a garland, so the saying emphasises combination as well as the value of each part.
Meaning: Inherited standing or polished manners cannot substitute for practical ability. The harsh comparison with begging challenges prestige that offers little useful contribution, without making poverty evidence of failure or deciding anyone’s personal worth.
Meaning: Acquiring and keeping resources is presented as a route to greater prosperity. The promised transformation of lead into gold gives that advice an extravagant image.
Editorial context: This links women’s appearance with supposed domestic neglect. Appearance is not evidence of neglect, and household duties need not be assigned by gender.
Meaning: The saying accuses women who attend to their appearance of neglecting domestic responsibilities. It treats looking in a mirror and caring for a household as competing duties assigned to women.
Meaning: Taking direct responsibility may help ensure that an important task is understood and completed. The saying favours personal action over merely sending someone, without proving that delegation is ineffective or that everything must be done alone.