A man may bear till his back breaks.
Meaning: Endless patience and burden-carrying eventually reach a breaking point beyond which collapse becomes inevitable.
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 Challenge
- Bear with evil and expect good. — Enduring hardship with patience and moral steadiness attracts positive outcomes and rewar…
- Beggars on horseback will ride to the devil. — Sudden wealth corrupts those unaccustomed to fortune, driving them toward ruin through ex…
- Begging is an ill trade on a fast-day. — Alms-giving diminishes on religious fast-days when even the charitable are themselves abs…
- Fear not the loss of the bell more than the loss of the steeple. — Don't obsess over minor possessions when greater structures—relationships, principles, li…
- The bird that can sing and will not sing, must be made to sing. — Talent unused is wasted potential; those capable of contributing must be compelled to ful…
- Who so blind as he that will not see? — Willful ignorance is the most complete blindness; refusing truth is worse than lacking it.
From our tongue twisters
- 隣の客はよく柿食う客だ (Tonari no kyaku wa yoku kaki kuu kyaku da) — A tricky spiral on ka/ki/ku that accelerates as you try to keep the syllables distinct.
- Como poco coco como, poco coco compro. — A bouncy 'co' drill — the word order and meaning flip with each repetition.
- Pepe Pecas pica papas con un pico. ¿Con qué pico pica papas Pepe Pecas? — A bouncy 'p' cluster that accelerates with the question at the end.