English For All: 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.