When old age is evil, youth can learn no good.
Meaning: A corrupt elder corrupts the next generation; moral decay flows downward through families and societies.
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 ill healing an old sore. — Reopening past wounds—whether emotional or relational—creates fresh damage harder to reso…
- Pain is forgotten where gain follows. — Suffering endured becomes insignificant once its hardship yields profitable or valuable r…
- Great pain and little gain make a man soon weary. — Disproportionate effort against meager returns exhausts resolve faster than any physical…
- Pains are the wages of ill-pleasures. — Suffering naturally follows from indulgences that ignore consequences or moral bounds.
- On painting and fighting look aloof off. — Maintaining distance reveals flaws invisible up close; premature judgment spoils both art…
- Sleep on it; the pillow is the best counsellor. — Delaying decisions allows subconscious processing to clarify confusion that waking worry…
From our untranslatable words
- Jeong — A deep emotional bond that forms slowly over time through shared experience — the invisib…
- Forelsket — The overwhelming, almost dizzy euphoria of falling in love — that specific state of early…
- Friluftsliv — The philosophy and practice of spending time outdoors — not as exercise or sport, but as…