When poverty comes in at the door, friendship leaps out of the window.
Meaning: Financial hardship exposes fair-weather friends who abandon you when material benefit disappears.
Origin: Usually heard as "when poverty comes in at the door, love flies out of the window." A saying of 1474 already held that love lasts as long as the money endures, and the painter G. F. Watts gave the proverb as the title of a painting in 1879. Hardship tests affection.
More proverbs about Perseverance
- Never sound the trumpet of your own praise. — Self-promotion undermines credibility; let others recognize your worth through actions, n…
- Procrastination is the thief of time. — Delaying tasks gradually steals away your hours until nothing remains to complete them.
- Prosperity gains friends, adversity tries them. — Wealth attracts companions easily, but only hardship reveals who genuinely cares about yo…
- He who gets four pounds and spends five has no need of a purse. — Spending beyond one's means makes financial planning irrelevant; the purse empties regard…
- Quick at meat, quick at work. — Eating swiftly signals efficiency and vigor; hasty people tend to accomplish tasks with e…
- He is a real friend who assists one in a pinch. — True friendship reveals itself through action during crisis, not comfort during calm.
From our tongue twisters
- El perro de San Roque no tiene rabo porque Ramón Ramírez se lo ha robado. — A rolled-'r' workout — every word demands the vibrating trill.
- Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril; rápido ruedan los carros sobre los rieles del ferrocarril. — The definitive Spanish rr drill — unrelenting double-r from start to finish.
- Parangaricutirimícuaro — Not a sentence but a single word — a legendary 22-letter pronunciation challenge from a r…