Winter finds out what summer lays up.
Meaning: Hardship reveals whether you prepared wisely during abundant times.
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
- By wisdom peace, by peace plenty. — Wise decisions prevent conflict, allowing communities to prosper through stable condition…
- Wisdom rides upon the ruins of folly. — Only through repeated mistakes and their costly consequences do we finally develop genuin…
- Wise men care not for what they cannot have. — The truly wise accept their limitations and redirect energy toward achievable goals rathe…
- If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. — Wishing alone accomplishes nothing; only action and resources transform desire into reali…
- Wit is the lightning of the mind. — Sudden brilliance illuminates truth instantly, but like lightning, its flash vanishes qui…
- You may truss up all his wit in an egg-shell. — Wit confined to theoretical cleverness without practical application remains insignifican…
From our tongue twisters
- De koetsier poetst de postkoets met postkoetspoets. — Turns on the gap between the Dutch 'oe' and 'o', with a run of 'ts' and 'p' stops layered…
- Wij smachten naar achtentachtig prachtige nachten. — Five words carrying the Dutch guttural 'cht', the sound foreigners find hardest to produc…
- Liesje leerde Lotje lopen langs de lange Lindelaan. — Eight consecutive l-words, with the vowel behind the l changing every time.