The collection / 9,806 fragments
Explore passages mentioning wealth, money, rich. 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: Pause before accepting an offer that promises an unusually large advantage. The bargain and the pause should match in scale: the more attractive the proposal, the more useful it may be to examine its terms.
Meaning: The saying values an earlier swarm of bees far more than a later one. The load of hay and worthless fly exaggerate the contrast between timing and expected benefit.
Meaning: The saying places sound judgement above outward prosperity. It uses poverty and foolishness as a stark comparison, but lacking money does not define a person’s wisdom, and the comparison should not romanticise hardship or demean people who need help.
Meaning: Having nothing is presented as leaving nothing further to lose through bankruptcy. The paradox may question dependence on possessions, but it understates the insecurity of poverty and should not suggest that deprivation offers freedom from risk or a desirable condition.
Meaning: When relying on what someone else can offer, your choices may be limited. The saying encourages realistic expectations about help that is available rather than guaranteed.
Meaning: Trash and trumpery describe things judged showy or worthless, and the highway suggests repeated choices leading toward want. The saying questions the value of what consumes someone’s resources, but it cannot explain every hardship or condemn another person’s modest pleasures.
Meaning: Seeking food or generosity is pictured as especially difficult when others are fasting. The saying puts a request beside a setting in which the expected resource is restricted.
Meaning: A well-made, suitable item may cost less over its useful life than a poor one that needs repeated replacement. Consider lasting value as well as the initial price.
Meaning: The saying claims a brim-full vessel contains no deceit. It gives visible fullness an image of straightforward generosity or candour.
Meaning: The saying prefers paying for meat to paying a doctor. It gives food provision priority through a contrast with the expense of illness.
Meaning: Inspect what you are agreeing to acquire before committing. An unseen or poorly understood offer may turn out to be different from what you expected.
Meaning: You cannot use up a benefit and still keep it available. Some desirable outcomes conflict, so a decision requires accepting what you give up.
Meaning: The saying advises keeping half the straw and hay at Candlemas. It makes a calendar point a check on whether provisions remain for later use.
Meaning: Attention to small amounts can contribute to a larger total over time. The saying encourages care with ordinary resources, but small savings alone cannot guarantee prosperity or solve a shortage of income.
Meaning: Possessing a large amount of something does not help if it cannot meet the need. The cat among grain highlights the difference between abundance and usefulness, without assuming that money or other resources are always useless.
Meaning: The saying evokes a scramble in which people take whatever they can secure. Its repeated catch gives the contest a hurried, opportunistic character.
Meaning: A year with abundant cherries is imagined as a joyful one. The rhyme associates a pleasing yield with celebration.
Meaning: Do not treat an expected benefit as if you already have it. Plans should allow for the possibility that an uncertain result will not arrive.
Meaning: A child may appear to own something while an adult ultimately controls its use or benefit. The pig-and-bacon contrast exposes the difference between a nominal gift and practical ownership.
Meaning: Children are presented as a form of wealth that cannot be measured in money. The saying values family relationships amid limited resources, but it should not romanticise poverty, impose parenthood or treat children as possessions or compensation for hardship.
Meaning: Children’s dependence can change form as they grow: the image moves from being physically nurtured to drawing on family resources.
Meaning: Chink evokes money, while stink represents an unpleasant or objectionable cost someone accepts to obtain it. The saying exposes willingness to overlook what is wrong for an advantage, rather than endorsing that willingness or proving that every paid activity is compromised.
Meaning: Being in clover pictures comfortable circumstances and an abundance of what one needs. The expression can describe an interval of ease or advantage, but it does not explain how that position arose or imply that everyone should be equally comfortable.
Meaning: Plan your spending or ambitions to fit the resources actually available. Adjusting the scope of a project can be wiser than committing to something you cannot presently sustain.