The collection / 2,549 fragments
Explore passages mentioning patience, patient. 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: People who continue an activity despite obvious discomfort must have a strong attachment to it. Dancing among thorns exaggerates the obstacles someone will accept for something they enjoy.
Meaning: The contrast between dainty preferences and unappealing food suggests that circumstances may limit choice. The saying can encourage flexibility when a preferred option is unavailable, but it should not be used to demand acceptance of unsafe, degrading or otherwise unsuitable conditions.
Meaning: Waiting for something can make the desire for it more intense. Notice how anticipation affects your judgement rather than assuming that a growing wish proves the thing is becoming more worthwhile.
Meaning: Trouble is pictured as moving between different doors rather than remaining in one place. The saying can express hope that a difficulty will pass, but it should not promise relief on a schedule or encourage satisfaction when someone else suffers.
Meaning: Keep room for another attempt when a setback makes a worthwhile purpose seem finished. The expression encourages perseverance, without forbidding rest, changing course or accepting that an undertaking may need to end.
Meaning: Keeping a welcome rest or easier stage in mind can encourage continued work. The saying joins a hoped-for benefit with present effort, without requiring someone to work through exhaustion or postpone every need for recovery.
Meaning: Continuing through a difficulty can keep a person from treating it as final defeat. The saying values endurance, without proving that persistence guarantees success or that changing course means someone has failed.
Meaning: A steady, gentle approach can carry a task further than impatient effort. The saying values sustainable progress, without making slowness a virtue in itself or claiming that every situation calls for the same pace.
Meaning: A setback can happen more quickly than the work needed to reach or regain a position. The saying draws attention to that difference in effort, without making every mistake permanent or claiming that recovery is impossible.
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: 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: 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: Holding back from demanding something is not necessarily giving up the claim. Patience or temporary restraint should not automatically be read as forgiveness or final agreement.
Meaning: Rushing a process can weaken the result someone hoped to obtain. The forced-fruit comparison invites attention to suitable development, without claiming every fast method is inferior or presenting the saying as gardening evidence.
Meaning: The speaker places trust in divine purpose above an apparent threat. Frost represents a force that might destroy something, while God’s will is pictured as stronger.
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: Simply waiting to be provided for can leave a need unmet. The open mouth exaggerates passive expectation into a posture that achieves nothing.
Meaning: A longer or less direct route may be better than a shortcut with an avoidable hazard. Going about instead of entering the ditch pictures a worthwhile adjustment, without requiring someone to avoid every uncertain path.
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: 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: Most tasks deserve enough care to avoid needless rushing. Catching fleas supplies a comic exception: the saying favours considered action, but its exaggerated wording does not rule out occasions when speed is useful.
Meaning: Harm may be caused more quickly than it can be repaired. The saying encourages care before an action, while recognising that recovery or restored trust can require time without following one fixed timetable.
Meaning: Do not announce success while an important difficulty remains unresolved. The call made before leaving the wood cautions against premature celebration, while allowing recognition of genuine progress on the way.
Meaning: The saying claims that hope can make someone more humble than despair does. Expecting something still to come may place a person in a position of waiting or dependence.