English proverbs (W)

English proverbs (W)

Proverbs are popularly defined as short expressions of popular wisdom. Efforts to improve on the popular definition have not led to a more precise definition. The wisdom is in the form of a general observation about the world or a bit of advice, sometimes more nearly an attitude toward a situation.

W

• Walk softly, carry a big stick.
  • Variant of an African proverb that was made famous in the U.S. by Teddy Roosevelt, "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far".
• Walk the walk and talk the talk.
• Waste not, want not.
• A watched pot never boils.
  • Main interpretation: Time seems to pass quicker when you aren't consciously waiting for something
  • Possible interpretation: Worrying over something can make the task seem to take longer than it should.
• The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
• We are all on this earth, we can't get off so get on.
• We can't always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
  • By: Franklin D. Roosevelt
• We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
  • By: Franklin D. Roosevelt
• We must take the bad with the good.
  • Variant: We must take the bitter with the sweet.
• We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean,but the ocean would be less without that drop.
• We tend to be perfect. That’s why when we make mistakes we are hard on ourselves.
• We've qualified for the World Cup, Go and compete.
• The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
  • Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
• Well begun is half done.
  • Variant: Well begun is half ended. - Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721
• "Well done" is better than "well said".
• What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. (A lie will always spawn a bigger lie.)
• What goes around comes around.
  • You will eventually have to face the consequences of your actions towards others as people tend to behave towards you as you have behaved towards others.
• What goes up must come down.
• What you see is what you get.
• What you sow is what you reap.
• What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
  • In marriage: the standard that applies to the husband applies also for the wife.
  • In general: Double standards are not allowed - the same standard governs all.
• When a thing is done advice comes too late.
• When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
• When one door closes, another door opens.
• When the cat is away, the mice will play.
  • Without enforcement lawlessness always results
• When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
• When you lie on roses while young, you'll lie on thorns while you're old.
• Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
  • Thomas Gray, "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College"
• Where there's a will, there's a way.
• Where vice goes before, vengeance follows after. - Divers Proverbs, Nathan Bailey, 1721
• The whole dignity of man lies in the power of thought.
  • - B. Pascal
• The whole is greater than its parts.

• Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
  • Anonymous ancient proverb, often wrongly attributed to Euripides. The version here is quoted as a "heathen proverb" in Daniel, a Model for Young Men (1854) by William Anderson Scott. The origin of the misattribution to Euripides is unknown. Several variants are quoted in ancient texts, as follows.
  • Variants and derived paraphrases:
    • For cunningly of old
      was the celebrated saying revealed:
      evil sometimes seems good
      to a man whose mind
      a god leads to destruction.
      • Sophocles, Antigone 620-3, a play pre-dating any of Euripides' surviving plays. An ancient commentary explains the passage as a paraphrase of the following, from another, earlier poet.
    • When a god plans harm against a man,
      he first damages the mind of the man he is plotting against.
      • Quoted in the scholia vetera to Sophocles' Antigone 620ff., without attribution. The meter (iambic trimeter) suggests that the source of the quotation is a tragic play.
    • For whenever the anger of divine spirits harms someone,
      it first does this: it steals away his mind
      and good sense, and turns his thought to foolishness,
      so that he should know nothing of his mistakes.
      • Attributed to "some of the old poets" by Lycurgus of Athens in his Oratio In Leocratem [Oration Against Leocrates], section 92. Again, the meter suggests that the source is a tragic play. These lines are misattributed to the much earlier semi-mythical statesman Lycurgus of Sparta in a footnote of recent editions of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and other works.
    • The gods do nothing until they have blinded the minds of the wicked.
      • Variant in ''Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) (1906), compiled by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 433.
    • Whom Fortune wishes to destroy she first makes mad.
      • Publilius Syrus, Maxim 911
    • The devil when he purports any evil against man, first perverts his mind.
      • As quoted by Athenagoras of Athens
    • quem Iuppiter vult perdere, dementat prius.
      • "Whom Jupiter wishes to destroy, he first sends mad"; neo-Latin version. "A maxim of obscure origin which may have been invented in Cambridge about 1640" -- Taylor, The Proverb (1931). Probably a variant of the line "He whom the gods love dies young", derived from Menander's play The Double Deceiver via Plautus (Bacchides 816-7).
    • quem (or quos) Deus perdere vult, dementat prius.
      • "Whom God wishes to destroy, he first sends mad." -- A Christianised version of the above.
    • Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
      • This variant is spoken by Prometheus, in The Masque of Pandora (1875) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.
      • As quoted in George Fox Interpreted: The Religion, Revelations, Motives and Mission of George Fox (1881) by Thomas Ellwood Longshore, p. 154
    • Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad.
      • As quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 16th edition (1992)
    • Nor do the gods appear in warrior's armour clad
      To strike them down with sword and spear
      Those whom they would destroy
      They first make mad.
      • Bhartṛhari, 7th c. AD; as quoted in John Brough,Poems from the Sanskrit, (1968), p, 67
  • Modern derivatives:
    The proverb's meaning is changed in many English versions from the 20th and 21st centuries that start with the proverb's first half (through "they") and then end with a phrase that replaces "first make mad" or "make mad." Such versions can be found at Internet search engines by using either of the two keyword phrases that are on Page 2 and Page 4 of the webpage "Pick any Wrong Card." The rest of that webpage is frameworks that induce a reader to compose new variations on this proverb.

• Whom thy care to tamper pots in an abandoned house
• Willful waste makes woeful want.
• Winners don't quit, thats why they win.
• Winners never quit and quitters never win.
• Winning is earning. Losing is learning.
• Winning isn't everything... It's the only thing.
• The wish is father to the thought.
• A woman is like a cup of tea; you'll never know how strong she is until she boils
  • Meaning: Never underestimate people; they could be stronger than you think
  • Possible interpretation: Don't pester your wife too often, unless you want her to never cook for you again.
• A woman's work is never done.
  • From a folk rhyme - "A man may work from sun to sun, but woman's work is never done", meaning that a man's traditional role as breadwinner may keep him occupied from sun-up to sundown, but the traditional roles of a woman demand even longer hours of work.
• Women need men like a fish needs a bicycle.
• A word spoken is past recalling.
  • Alternative: What's done is done (so think before doing).
  • Interpretation: Once you say something hurtful, provocative, etc., you can't take it back.
• Words uttered only causes confusion. Words written only causes history.
• Working hard or hardly working?
• The world is your oyster.
• Worship the Creator not His creation.
• The worst good day is always better than the best bad day.
• The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.
• Write injuries in the sand, kindnesses in marble.