It's ill healing an old sore.
Meaning: Reopening past wounds—whether emotional or relational—creates fresh damage harder to resolve than the original injury.
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
- Pain is forgotten where gain follows. — Suffering endured becomes insignificant once its hardship yields profitable or valuable r…
- Great pain and little gain make a man soon weary. — Disproportionate effort against meager returns exhausts resolve faster than any physical…
- Pains are the wages of ill-pleasures. — Suffering naturally follows from indulgences that ignore consequences or moral bounds.
- On painting and fighting look aloof off. — Maintaining distance reveals flaws invisible up close; premature judgment spoils both art…
- Sleep on it; the pillow is the best counsellor. — Delaying decisions allows subconscious processing to clarify confusion that waking worry…
- He can ill pipe that wants his upper lip. — Missing essential tools makes mastery impossible, no matter one's skill or determination.
From our compliments & insults
- Faulpelz — A lazybones — someone who lounges around and avoids any effort, as warm and inert as a fu…
- Griesgram — A perpetual grump who radiates dissatisfaction and sucks the joy out of every room.
- Pantoffelheld — A man who is only bold and brave at home — a henpecked pushover who bluster turns into a…