Jest not at another's infirmities.
Meaning: Mocking someone's weaknesses or afflictions breeds cruelty and diminishes your own humanity.
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
- There's no joy without alloy. — Pure pleasure is impossible; every good thing contains some mixture of difficulty or sorr…
- Joy surfeited turns to sorrow. — Excessive pleasure breeds complacency and inevitable disappointment when abundance inevit…
- As easy kiss my hand. — Dismissing something as trivially simple often blinds us to hidden difficulty or complexi…
- The ladle cools the pot. — A subordinate's efforts can moderate or restrain a superior's excessive force or passion.
- Laws were made for rogues. — Honest people need no laws; restrictions exist only because dishonest people require exte…
- The empty leech sucks sore. — A desperate, unfulfilled person causes more harm than one already satisfied.
From our idioms
- De conserve — Together, in company — not to be confused with de concert.
- On lui donnerait le Bon Dieu sans confession — He looks completely innocent — with the implication that he is not.
- À cor et à cri — Loudly and insistently; demanding something at the top of one's voice.