ProverbMorality
Italian origin1666
Italian origin1666You attract more flies with honey than vinegar
Meaning: Kindness and pleasantness persuade people more effectively than hostility or harshness.
Example: “Ask the landlord nicely; you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
Origin: Kindness persuades better than harshness. Giovanni Torriano's collection of Italian proverbs (1666) has "Honey gets more flies to it than doth vinegar," and Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack (1744) says that a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.
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Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
- Sensible Actually means 'sensitive'. For sensible/level-headed, say raisonnable.
- Librairie Actually means 'bookshop'. A library is une bibliothèque.
- Constipado Actually means 'having a head cold'. Estoy constipado = I have a cold.
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