Rub your sore eye with your elbow.
Meaning: Attempting the impossible wastes effort; some problems lack practical solutions.
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.
Equivalents in Spanish
- Spanish: El ojo limpiale con el codo (literally: Wipe your eye with your elbow)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Give it plenty of elbow grease. — Sustained physical effort and hard work can overcome obstacles that seem intractable or r…
- That's but an empty purse that's full of other men's money. — Borrowed wealth brings no security; true richness comes from what you genuinely own.
- England is the Paradise of women. — Women historically enjoyed greater legal protections, property rights, and social freedom…
- Enough and to spare is too much. — Abundance beyond necessity breeds excess and waste, inviting trouble rather than security.
- He that throws away his estate with his hands, goes afterwards to pick it upon his feet. — Careless squandering forces you into degrading labor to recover what you carelessly destr…
- He that knows himself best, esteems himself least. — Self-awareness diminishes arrogance; intimate knowledge of our flaws humbles our self-reg…
From our idioms
- fourrer son nez dans les affaires de quelqu'un — To meddle or pry indiscreetly into someone else's affairs.
- griller les neurones — To drive someone insane or cause them to go mad.
- passer d'un excès à l'autre — To swing from one extreme to the opposite extreme without ever finding moderation.