Misunderstanding brings lies to town.
Meaning: Unclear communication creates fertile ground where falsehoods spread and distort truth.
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 Communication
- Old saws speak the truth. — Time-tested sayings endure because experience has repeatedly proven their wisdom.
- Painted pictures are dead speakers. — Visual representations lack the power of living voice and direct human communication.
- Soft words butter no parsnips. — Gentle flattery alone cannot feed you; action and effort produce real, tangible results.
- Speak well of the dead. — Honoring those who've passed prevents spreading harm they can no longer defend themselves…
- Truth lies in a well. — Deep truths require effort and patience to excavate from obscurity, not quick surface obs…
- When wine sinks, words swim. — Alcohol loosens the tongue, making people speak freely or carelessly without their usual…
From our tongue twisters
- O peito do pé de Pedro é preto. — Five 'p' words in a row, with the vowels shifting underneath each one.
- A aranha arranha a rã. A rã arranha a aranha. — Contrasts the soft single r of aranha against the hard rolled rr of arranha — one letter…
- 네가 그린 기린 그림은 못 그린 기린 그림이고 내가 그린 기린 그림은 잘 그린 기린 그림이다. (Nega geurin girin geurimeun mot geurin girin geurimigo, naega geurin girin geurimeun jal geurin girin geurimida.) — geurin, girin and geurim rotate through nearly the same syllables with only the vowel mov…