The worth of a thing is best known by the want of it.
Meaning: Deprivation reveals true value; we recognize importance only through loss or scarcity.
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
- For want of a nail the shoe is lost; for want of a shoe the horse is lost; for want of a horse the rider is lost. — Small negligences compound catastrophically; ignoring minor problems cascades into comple…
- He that is warm thinks all are so. — The comfortable forget others suffer deprivation and misjudge universal experience by the…
- He that hath a head of wax must not walk in the sun. — Those with fragile vulnerabilities should avoid situations that expose or exploit their w…
- Let the weakest go to the wall. — The vulnerable are sacrificed first when resources or power become scarce or contested.
- Where it is weakest there the thread breaketh. — Failure occurs at the point of greatest vulnerability, not where strength exists.
- Their folly pleads the privilege of wealth. — Wealth allows the foolish to escape natural consequences that would humble ordinary peopl…