Puff not against the wind.
Meaning: Wasting energy on futile resistance exhausts you; work with circumstances instead of against them.
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
- Be ruled by your purse. — Financial constraints should dictate your decisions and discipline your ambitions more th…
- Wrinkled purses make wrinkled faces. — Poverty and financial hardship leave visible marks of stress and worry upon a person's ap…
- Anything for a quiet life. — Compromising principles for peace often costs more than the temporary harmony it buys.
- Small rain lays great dust. — Gentle persistence dissolves entrenched problems that seem immovable through force alone.
- Self do, self have. — Personal effort yields personal reward; what you accomplish yourself remains genuinely yo…
- Short reckonings are soon cleared. — Quick settlements of debts prevent disputes and preserve relationships before resentment…
From our idioms
- Une tête de linotte — A scatterbrain.
- La part du lion — By far the largest portion, taken by the strongest party.
- Être connu comme le loup blanc — To be known by absolutely everyone.