Medlars are never good till they be rotten.
Meaning: Unpleasant external conditions sometimes precede inner ripeness; patience reveals hidden value in apparent decay.
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 Perseverance
- Time and straw make medlars ripe. — Patience and neglect accomplish what effort cannot; some things require only waiting.
- It is never too late to mend. — Mistakes and poor situations remain fixable at any age or stage, no matter how long you'v…
- If every one would mend one, all would be mended. — Individual responsibility for self-improvement creates collective progress without relyin…
- In the end things will mend. — Patience through hardship yields eventual improvement; time itself becomes the healer of…
- Who would keep a cow when he may have a bottle of milk for a penny! — Owning the burden of providing for something costs more than simply purchasing what you n…
- A wise man changes his mind; a fool never. — Holding firm to wrong beliefs demonstrates stubbornness, while reconsidering based on new…