A hungry horse makes a clean manger.
Meaning: A desperate situation compels thorough action where comfort permits negligence.
Origin: Recorded in A Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, an undated collection published in London by Whittaker & Co. around 1880 and credited to Thomas Preston. Its earlier history hasn't been traced.
More proverbs about Human Nature
- A hungry man, an angry man. — Physical deprivation erodes patience and civility, making irritability inevitable.
- In the husband wisdom, in the wife gentleness. — Complementary virtues in partnership: husbands provide rational guidance while wives offe…
- A young man idle, an old man needy. — Neglecting work in youth ensures poverty and hardship in old age.
- Ingratitude is the daughter of pride. — Pride blinds people to others' kindness, making them unable to recognize or acknowledge t…
- Woman's instinct is often truer than man's reasoning. — Women's intuitive judgments frequently prove more accurate than men's logical deliberatio…
- Itch and ease can no man please. — Constant comfort breeds dissatisfaction; humans inherently seek challenges to feel engage…
From our idioms
- het heft in eigen handen nemen — To take control of a situation or seize the initiative.
- bittere pil — something unpleasant or difficult that one must accept.
- op zijn bord krijgen — to be assigned a task or burden.