Well may he smell of fire whose gown burneth.
Meaning: A person reeking of smoke has demonstrably experienced flames, so visible consequences prove actual wrongdoing occurred.
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 Challenge
- It's good fishing in troubled waters. — Exploiting chaos and confusion allows cunning people to gain unfair advantages over other…
- It is one thing to flourish and another to fight. — Thriving requires different skills than defending oneself; prosperity and conflict demand…
- What God will, no frost can kill. — Divine purpose transcends natural destruction; what's meant to survive will endure despit…
- Touch a galled horse, and he will wince. — Inflicting pain on someone already wounded guarantees a sharp, defensive reaction.
- When God wills, all winds bring rain. — Divine providence operates beyond human understanding; circumstances we cannot control ma…
- Grasp no more than thy hand will hold. — Overreaching beyond your capacity leads to losing everything you might have secured.
From our tongue twisters
- 红鲤鱼与绿鲤鱼与驴 (Hóng lǐyú yǔ lǜ lǐyú yǔ lǘ) — lǐ, lǜ and lǘ differ only by vowel rounding and tone — nine syllables that all collapse t…
- 八百标兵奔北坡，炮兵并排北边跑。(Bābǎi biāobīng bēn běipō, pàobīng bìngpái běibian pǎo.) — A pure b-versus-p drill, separating Mandarin's unaspirated b from its aspirated p.
- O peito do pé de Pedro é preto. — Five 'p' words in a row, with the vowels shifting underneath each one.