Grasp no more than thy hand will hold.
Meaning: Overreaching beyond your capacity leads to losing everything you might have secured.
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
- A great dowry is a bed full of troubles. — Excessive wealth given in marriage creates domestic conflict rather than harmony or secur…
- Green wood makes a hot fire. — Unseasoned effort burns intensely but wastefully, consuming energy without producing last…
- Grief pent up will burst the heart. — Unexpressed sorrow accumulates internally until it causes emotional and physical harm.
- The mill cannot grind with the water that is past. — Dwelling on past opportunities wastes energy; focus your effort on present circumstances…
- Better be half hanged than ill wed. — Marriage to the wrong person brings lasting torment worse than a swift, terrible death.
- There are many ways of killing a dog beside hanging him. — Multiple methods exist to achieve the same harmful outcome, so don't fixate on one partic…
From our idioms
- fuori del seminato — Off the point; irrelevant or beside the subject at hand.
- senza colpo ferire — Without any struggle, opposition, or difficulty; achieved effortlessly.
- essere di casa — To be accepted as a family member; to feel completely at home and comfortable somewhere.