None ever yet got fat on windfalls.
Meaning: Unexpected gain alone cannot sustain you; reliable work and effort build lasting prosperity.
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
- More have been drowned in wine than water. — Excessive indulgence in pleasure proves more destructive than hardship or deprivation eve…
- When wine is in, wit is out. — Alcohol impairs judgment and rational thinking, leaving only foolishness in its place.
- Winter finds out what summer lays up. — Hardship reveals whether you prepared wisely during abundant times.
- By wisdom peace, by peace plenty. — Wise decisions prevent conflict, allowing communities to prosper through stable condition…
- Wisdom rides upon the ruins of folly. — Only through repeated mistakes and their costly consequences do we finally develop genuin…
- Wise men care not for what they cannot have. — The truly wise accept their limitations and redirect energy toward achievable goals rathe…
From our untranslatable words
- Amae — The comfortable feeling of depending on another's goodwill — leaning into someone's indul…
- Weltschmerz — The weariness and sadness you feel when the world as it is falls painfully short of the w…
- Torschlusspanik — The anxious fear that time is running out — that the gates of opportunity, youth, or life…