Fire and water are good servants but bad masters.
Meaning: Both elements prove invaluable when controlled but destructive when allowed to dominate unchecked.
Origin: Fire cooks and water irrigates, but either one out of control destroys. A writer of 1637, reporting a great fire, already treated the saying as proverbial, and Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia (1732) includes it.
More proverbs about Challenge
- Well may he smell of fire whose gown burneth. — A person reeking of smoke has demonstrably experienced flames, so visible consequences pr…
- It's good fishing in troubled waters. — Exploiting chaos and confusion allows cunning people to gain unfair advantages over other…
- It is one thing to flourish and another to fight. — Thriving requires different skills than defending oneself; prosperity and conflict demand…
- What God will, no frost can kill. — Divine purpose transcends natural destruction; what's meant to survive will endure despit…
- Touch a galled horse, and he will wince. — Inflicting pain on someone already wounded guarantees a sharp, defensive reaction.
- When God wills, all winds bring rain. — Divine providence operates beyond human understanding; circumstances we cannot control ma…
From our untranslatable words
- Kilig — The butterflies-and-shivers feeling of romantic excitement — the giddiness triggered by a…
- Yuánfèn — The invisible thread of fate that brings people together — the destined connection betwee…
- Chōu kōng — To steal a moment of escape from a hectic schedule — finding a sliver of free time and us…