There's no joy without alloy.
Meaning: Pure pleasure is impossible; every good thing contains some mixture of difficulty or sorrow.
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
- Joy surfeited turns to sorrow. — Excessive pleasure breeds complacency and inevitable disappointment when abundance inevit…
- As easy kiss my hand. — Dismissing something as trivially simple often blinds us to hidden difficulty or complexi…
- The ladle cools the pot. — A subordinate's efforts can moderate or restrain a superior's excessive force or passion.
- Laws were made for rogues. — Honest people need no laws; restrictions exist only because dishonest people require exte…
- The empty leech sucks sore. — A desperate, unfulfilled person causes more harm than one already satisfied.
- Liars have short wings. — Deceit collapses quickly because falsehoods cannot sustain flight or escape scrutiny long…
From our idioms
- Tenir les cordons du poêle — To be a pallbearer at a funeral, as a mark of honor.
- La corne d'abondance — A source of inexhaustible abundance.
- Un choix cornélien — A dilemma in which every option requires sacrificing something one is bound to.