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 (Spanish-language collection)
The effort spent pursuing a small dispute can exceed what is at stake. The two money names and the paper image direct attention to the cost of the process, not only the disputed amount.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
A small pack fitting a small pedlar pictures resources proportionate to an undertaking. A workable scale may matter more than an impressive load.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (Spanish-language collection)
An appetite that takes too much calls for an appropriate limit. The horse and halter offer an image of managing excess, without making restraint a licence to control other people harshly.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
Someone who refuses to use or share anything can experience possessions as perpetual scarcity. The saying criticises miserliness rather than people who lack resources.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (Spanish-language collection)
A supply is depleted when people continually draw from it without replenishment. The bottom of the container makes a limit visible, inviting attention to how a shared resource is maintained.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
Something desirable can seem unpleasant when a person has already had too much. The full blackbird’s response to cherries illustrates how satisfaction changes appetite.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Wanting something too intensely can make it harder to judge what pursuing it requires. The warning concerns desire becoming disproportionate, without condemning ordinary ambition or deciding that a particular goal is not worth seeking.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
Do not enlarge one difficulty into several through exaggeration or a poorly chosen response. Examine the actual problem before adding imagined dangers or unnecessary complications.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (Spanish-language collection)
A fault does not automatically settle whether a useful relationship should end. The cat’s theft invites a proportionate judgement, while leaving serious harm and continuing boundaries firmly open to consideration.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
The comparison warns about unchecked appetite by portraying it as more destructive than open violence. It is rhetorical emphasis, not a reliable comparison of deaths or a dietary rule.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
Trying to take or control everything can put what you already have at risk. Consider whether an excessive demand is making a workable arrangement less secure.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional
The saying makes greed burst a bag. It warns that trying to obtain too much can undermine what is already held.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (Spanish-language collection)
An income kept instead of spent appears to create wealth without mysterious alchemy. The comparison highlights retaining resources, without pretending that people can avoid necessary costs or that saving alone guarantees security.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
A cure can cause more harm than the small problem it addresses. Correct gently and proportionately rather than pursuing a spotless result at someone’s expense.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
An attractive price can encourage purchases whose combined cost exceeds their value to you. A bargain saves money only when the purchase itself is useful and affordable.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
A satisfying moment can be a good stopping point. Continuing solely to extend a success may expose the gain or enjoyment to unnecessary loss.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (Spanish-language collection)
A joke can be better left at its successful moment than prolonged until it tires or hurts people. Knowing when to stop is part of considerate humour, not a rejection of playfulness.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (Spanish-language collection)
The scale of a provision can fit the need it serves. The little bird and nest invite proportionate choices, without requiring small ambitions or accepting inadequate shelter and resources.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
A limited resource sets limits on what can reasonably be made from it. Adjust the scope to what is available or obtain more resources before promising a larger result.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
Take a sustainable benefit without destroying what supplies it. The contrast between shearing and flaying warns against extraction that becomes ruinous or cruel.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
What is held or carried can place demands on its container. The blade and sheath invite attention to the cost of sustaining something powerful or continually active.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
The paradox that enough requires too much questions how a margin is judged. It may picture wanting surplus or preparing beyond an exact minimum.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (French-language collection)
A small gain may not justify a larger expense. Compare the value of what you are trying to recover with the resources spent in the search.
Read the explanation and example ↗proverb · Traditional (Spanish-language collection)
A stated intention to save conflicts with spending more than is earned. The one-to-three comparison exposes that mismatch, without making poverty or unavoidable expenses a failure of character.
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