Forbearance is no acquittance.
Meaning: Patience with wrongdoing doesn't erase the debt or obligation owed; tolerance isn't forgiveness.
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 Wisdom
- Forbidden fruit is sweet. — Desire intensifies for what we're prohibited from having, making the forbidden alluringly…
- Forced fruits fail in flavour. — Artificial acceleration of growth produces inferior results lacking the quality time natu…
- Eaten bread is soon forgotten. — Past favors fade from memory unless gratitude is cultivated and reinforced through contin…
- Friday's sail, sure to fail. — Sailors who depart on Friday face unpredictable winds and treacherous seas, making ventur…
- Frugality is an estate. — Living modestly and saving wisely accumulates wealth as surely as inheriting land.
- One flower makes no garland. — Individual efforts lack impact; collective contribution creates something meaningful and…
From our untranslatable words
- Schadenfreude — The guilty little pleasure of taking satisfaction in someone else's misfortune.
- Wabi-sabi — Finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and the worn or incomplete.
- Tsundoku — Buying books and letting them pile up unread — a habit, not a crime.