Words worth understanding
Start with the thought in plain English. Then explore the imagery, a practical example, when to use it, and what the saying does not mean.
4,000 entries with editorial explanations. The wider collection also contains entries still awaiting an individual interpretation.
proverb · Traditional
An unpolished beginning does not settle what someone or something may become. The rough-looking young horse allows for development and care, without guaranteeing future success or excusing problems that need attention now.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Experience with other people can soften rough habits or improve how someone deals with others. The stone passing from hand to hand suggests gradual change, without making conformity or mistreatment a necessary route to maturity.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
A silent mouth described as sweet to hear gives quiet a pleasing place in conversation. The saying values restraint through a paradoxical sound image.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
An honest correction can be more useful than a pleasant deception. The contrast favours truth that helps someone understand a real problem, without making harshness a virtue or assuming that every rebuke is justified.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying connects a still tongue with a wise head. It praises restraint in speech as part of thoughtful judgment.
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The saying suggests that a stumble may prevent a fall. A smaller setback can reveal a problem before it becomes larger.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Revising a view when there is good reason can be a sign of sound judgement. The saying challenges stubbornness, without making every change sensible or every settled conviction foolish.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying leaves advice unwanted at both ends of its contrast: a wise person supposedly does not need it, while a fool refuses it.
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The saying presents adversity and loss as teachers of wisdom. It suggests that difficult experience can change judgment.
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Adversity leading through knowledge to wisdom gives difficult experience an image of learning. The saying values reflection on what happens.
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Difficulty may teach practical lessons without bringing material success. Gaining understanding from a setback is different from becoming better off because of it.
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Advice rejected and adversity left to teach contrast offered guidance with learning through consequences. The saying questions how far counsel can direct another person’s choices.
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Age leading through experience and knowledge to wisdom forms a hopeful chain of development. The saying values learning from accumulated life.
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The saying calls every beginning hard. It gives difficulty at the outset a place in the experience of starting.
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The saying makes growth depend on activity. It emphasises participation or effort in development.
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The saying makes different roads converge on Rome. As an analogy, different approaches may reach the same goal.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Seeds answering light with different colours pair a shared influence with varied results. The saying gives difference a place within a common response.
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Leaving room for a mistake asks for an allowance rather than assuming perfect performance. It encourages considering uncertainty in an undertaking.
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Long-established habits can be difficult to change. The saying states this too absolutely: it does not show that older people are incapable of learning or that every new attempt will fail.
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Poor judgment can seem especially disappointing when someone has had many opportunities to learn. Age supplies the contrast with an expected growth in wisdom.
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The saying presents an old fox as already knowing craft. It values experience as a source of shrewdness or skill.
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The saying values a little practical judgment above a large amount of learned knowledge. Mother-wit and an older learning-related reading of clergy create the contrast.
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A small amount of practical action can demonstrate more than extensive advice. The contrast asks speakers to connect what they recommend with what they actually do, rather than measuring usefulness by the volume of their words.
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A troubled beginning need not prevent a person from developing good judgment and conduct. The saying leaves room for growth beyond an early label.
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