One woodcock does not make a winter.
Meaning: A single favorable occurrence cannot establish a lasting pattern or justify confident predictions about the future.
Origin: Woodcocks arrive in Britain from the north in autumn, so the first one sighted seemed to herald winter — but one bird proves nothing. It is a cold-weather twin of "one swallow does not make a summer," and Welsh has the same saying, un cyffylog ni wna aeaf.
More proverbs about Wisdom
- One half of the world knows not how the other half lives. — Wealth and privilege create invisible barriers preventing the comfortable from understand…
- The world is his who knows how to wait for it. — Patience allows strategic advantage; those who resist rushing seize opportunities others…
- The worst spoke in the cart-wheel breaks first. — Weakest components fail under strain, revealing themselves before stronger ones.
- He that is thrown would ever wrestle. — One who has suffered defeat becomes perpetually combative, unable to accept vulnerability.
- He who maketh others wretched is himself a wretch, whether prince or peasant. — Cruelty corrupts the perpetrator's own soul regardless of their social station or power.
- A growing youth hath a wolf in his stomach. — Adolescent bodies demand constant nourishment to fuel their rapid physical development an…
From our tongue twisters
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. — Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
- Didon dîna, dit-on, du dos d'un dodu dindon dont le dodu dos dodine. — A 'd' / 'din' / 'dod' avalanche that seems designed to jam the tongue in third gear.
- Zehn zahme Ziegen ziehen zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo. — A sustained 'z' / 'ts' drill — every word starts with the same affricate.