Don't put the cart before the horse
Meaning: Do things in the correct order.
Origin: Latin had a similar image of the cart drawing the ox, and John Heywood's 1546 collection has "Set the cart before the horse." It describes doing things in the wrong order.
Equivalents in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German
- French: Ne mets pas la charrue avant les bœufs (literally: Don't put the plow before the oxen)
- Spanish: No empieces la casa por el tejado (literally: Don't start the house from the roof)
- Japanese: 本末転倒 (Honmatsu tentō) (literally: Reversing root and branch)
- German: Das Pferd am Schwanz aufzäumen (literally: To bridle the horse by the tail)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do — Sometimes unconventional paths lead to correct outcomes.
- Great minds think alike — Intelligent people often reach the same conclusions.
- Cross that bridge when you come to it — Deal with problems only when they arise.
- All roads lead to Rome — There are many ways to reach the same goal.
- You're never too old to learn — Learning is a lifelong process.
- There's no such thing as a free lunch — Everything has a hidden cost.
From our untranslatable words
- Torschlusspanik — The anxious fear that time is running out — that the gates of opportunity, youth, or life…
- Kummerspeck — The weight you gain from emotional eating — the extra pounds that accumulate during heart…
- Fremdschämen — The vicarious embarrassment you feel for someone who is doing something cringeworthy — ev…