I wept when I was born, and every day shows why.
Meaning: Life's inevitable sufferings validate the infant's instinctive tears at entering existence.
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.
Equivalents in Spanish
- Spanish: Desque nací lloré, y cada dia nace porqué (literally: When I was born I wept, and every day brings a reason why)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- A whet is no let [hindrance]. — Sharpening a tool causes only momentary delay before it works far more effectively than b…
- You may pay too dear for your whistle. — Pursuing trivial pleasures often costs more in dignity, money, or opportunity than their…
- There's ne'er a why, but there's a wherefore. — Questioning "why" proves futile; instead, seek the practical "how" and "where" of circums…
- Wise men are not caught by wiles. — Intelligent people recognize and resist deception through careful discernment, unlike the…
- None ever yet got fat on windfalls. — Unexpected gain alone cannot sustain you; reliable work and effort build lasting prosperi…
- More have been drowned in wine than water. — Excessive indulgence in pleasure proves more destructive than hardship or deprivation eve…
From our idioms
- strike it rich — To make money (sentence 1); or, less literally, to be wildly successful (sentence 2).
- string someone along — To make someone believe something that is not true.
- stuffed shirt — A man who is tiresome, pompous and selfimportant.