The early worm gets eaten
Meaning: Being first isn't always advantageous — sometimes it's risky.
Origin: Modern counter-proverb to 'the early bird,' gaining popularity in the 20th century.
Translations
- French: Il faut savoir attendre son heure (literally: One must know how to wait for one's hour)
- Spanish: No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano (literally: Getting up early doesn't make dawn come sooner)
- Japanese: 出る杭は打たれる (Deru kui wa utareru) (literally: The nail that sticks out gets hammered down)
More proverbs about Wisdom
- Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater — Don't discard something valuable while getting rid of unwanted things.
- Rob Peter to pay Paul — Solve one problem by creating another.
- You can't have your cake and eat it too — You can't enjoy two mutually exclusive things simultaneously.
- Better safe than sorry — It's wiser to be cautious than to take unnecessary risks.
- A rose by any other name would smell as sweet — The essence of something doesn't depend on what it's called.
- Kill two birds with one stone — Accomplish two tasks with a single action.
Loading the full interactive collection…