Judge not of men or things at first sight.
Meaning: Snap judgments based on initial appearances miss the complexity that emerges through closer examination.
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
- Wood half burnt is easily kindled. — Partially damaged resolve or commitment reignites more readily than creating fresh determ…
- Kindnesses, like grain, increase by sowing. — Generosity multiplies when shared freely, returning abundance to those who give it.
- The taste of the kitchen is better than the smell. — Experiencing something firsthand surpasses merely anticipating or imagining it from a dis…
- To split knotty timber use smooth wedges. — Solving complex problems requires gentle, refined approaches rather than brute force or c…
- The knowledge of the disease is half the cure. — Identifying a problem precisely enables you to address it effectively rather than waste e…
- Knowledge, like physic, is more plague than profit, if it arrives too late. — Untimely knowledge burdens without benefit, like medicine administered after death has al…
From our untranslatable words
- Komorebi — The dappled light that filters through leaves and scatters across the ground.
- Schadenfreude — The guilty little pleasure of taking satisfaction in someone else's misfortune.
- Wabi-sabi — Finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and the worn or incomplete.