Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped
Meaning: Focus on the root cause of a problem rather than just its consequence.
Origin: Widely shared as an African proverb and sometimes credited to the Akan of Ghana, but the anthropologist Johnnetta Betsch Cole, who did fieldwork in Liberia, knows it as a Liberian saying. The point is to look for the cause of a mistake rather than dwell on the result.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, and Japanese
- French: Ne regarde pas où tu es tombé, mais où tu as glissé (literally: Don't look where you fell, but where you slipped)
- Spanish: No mires donde caíste, sino donde resbalaste (literally: Don't look where you fell, but where you slipped)
- Japanese: 転んだ場所ではなく、滑った場所を見よ (Koronda basho de wa naku, subetta basho wo miyo) (literally: Look not at where you fell, but where you slipped)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything — Good health is the foundation upon which all other good things in life are built.
- Water finds its own level — People and things naturally settle into their proper place over time.
- The moon is not shamed by the barking of dogs — Those with true integrity remain unaffected by baseless criticism or petty noise.
- The more you know, the more you realize you don't know — True knowledge reveals the vastness of what remains to be learned.
- The greatest wealth is health — Good health is more valuable than any material possession or social status.
- Eagles don't catch flies — People of high purpose and ambition don't concern themselves with petty matters.
From our idioms
- give someone the cold shoulder — to deliberately treat someone with indifference or ignore them.
- let the cat out of the bag — to reveal a secret inadvertently.
- pull your punches — to hold back; to be less forceful than you could be.