He that will not be counselled cannot be helped.
Meaning: Resistance to advice ensures problems persist; help requires receptiveness to guidance.
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
- He covers me with his wings, and bites me with his bill. — A protector may simultaneously harm you through the very closeness required to defend you.
- A crooked tree will have a crooked shadow. — Flawed character inevitably produces flawed outcomes, just as a tree's deformity cannot c…
- Daylight will peep through a small hole. — Light finds its way through the tiniest opening, so truth and hope cannot be completely s…
- There are none so deaf as those who will not hear. — Willful ignorance is more impenetrable than physical deafness; people reject truth they r…
- Out of debt, out of danger. — Freedom from financial obligations eliminates the vulnerability that creditors and desper…
- He that hath shipped the devil must make the best of him. — Once committed to a dangerous course, you must proceed with full effort rather than aband…
From our tongue twisters
- Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami. — Six words, almost no vowels — a single noun phrase that non-Polish speakers find impossib…
- 四是四，十是十，十四是十四，四十是四十。(Sì shì sì, shí shì shí, shísì shì shísì, sìshí shì sìshí.) — A pure sì/shí tone drill — the two numbers are near-identical and the tones swap each tim…
- 吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮，不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮。(Chī pútao bù tǔ pútao pí, bù chī pútao dào tǔ pútao pí.) — A 'pú/tǔ/pí' drill with reversing logic — the negations flip the meaning as the tongue tr…