Knowledge, like physic, is more plague than profit, if it arrives too late.
Meaning: Untimely knowledge burdens without benefit, like medicine administered after death has already claimed its victim.
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
- An ounce of knowledge may be worth a pound of comfort. — Small, precise understanding often proves more valuable than soothing but empty reassuran…
- The lame goeth as far as the staggerer. — A slow, steady person reaches the destination as surely as one who moves erratically or w…
- After Lammas corn ripens as much by night as by day. — Grain's final ripening accelerates exponentially once the critical August threshold passe…
- On a dark night an owl would be glad of a lantern. — Even those naturally suited to darkness benefit from light when circumstances demand visi…
- The law is not the same at morning and night. — Justice depends on who applies it and when, revealing law's human inconsistency rather th…
- Law makers should not be law breakers. — Those who craft laws must follow them, or their authority crumbles through hypocrisy.
From our idioms
- prosty jak drut — Very easy or straightforward.
- dusza towarzystwa — The most entertaining or lively person at a gathering.
- policzyć na palcach jednej ręki — To be very few in number; countable on one hand.