Proverb
Practice makes perfect.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
CULTURAL EXPLORATION
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Proverb
Praise a fair day at night.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Put a coward on his mettle and he'll fight the devil.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Put a snake in your bosom, and when it is warm it will sting you.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Put your finger in the fire and say it was your fortune.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Poetry
Quiet Night Thoughts
静夜思Moonlight before my bed— I take it for frost upon the ground. I lift my head and gaze at the bright moon; I lower it, thinking of home.
Poetry
Quiet Night Thoughts
静夜思
Moonlight before my bed— I take it for frost upon the ground. I lift my head and gaze at the bright moon; I lower it, thinking of home.
Where this object leads next
李Authored by · Source-attestedLi BaiThis work is attributed to Li Bai.
→唐Historical period · Source-attestedTang dynastyThe subject is located in this historical period.
→律Form · Source-attestedChinese classical verseThe subject uses the five-character quatrain form.
→月Included in theme · Textually attestedMoonlight, Home and ReunionThe subject enters the theme from its own cultural position.
→月Uses motif · Textually attestedMoonlight motifThe text uses the moon as an interpretable motif or cultural image.
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Open the full object page →Proverb
Quoth the young cock, "I'll neither meddle nor make."
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Raise nae mair deils than ye can lay.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Reckless youth maks ruefu' eild.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Poetry
Red Cliff
赤壁A broken halberd sunk in sand, its iron not yet eaten away; I take it up myself, grind and wash it, and identify an earlier dynasty. Had the east wind not favored young Zhou, deep spring in the Bronze Sparrow Tower would have shut away the two Qiao.
Poetry
Reeds of Innocence
A piper in the valleys meets a child on a cloud who has him pipe, then sing, then write his songs down, after which the piper makes a reed pen and writes the songs for every child to read.
Poetry
Remember
A request to be remembered turns into permission to forget, placing the survivor’s freedom from grief above the speaker’s own memorial claim.
Poetry
Remorse
At nightfall a voice commands departure: duty and dereliction guide the addressee back to solitude, then to a sad, silent home of bitter tears and ghostlike shades. The poem says the soul or the world must fade before the addressee can meet peace. Cloud shadows, winds, ocean and whatever moves, toils or grieves all have their appointed sleep, and the addressee shall rest in the grave; yet until the phantoms that house, heath and garden once made dear have fled, remembrance, repentance and deep musings remain bound to the music of two voices and the light of one sweet smile.
Poetry
River Snow
江雪Across a thousand mountains, no bird is in flight; on ten thousand paths, no human trace remains. In a lone boat, an old man in straw cape and hat fishes alone in the snow on the cold river.
Proverb
Rome was not built in a day.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Satan rebukes sin.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Save a thief from the gallows, and he will be the first to cut your throat.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Save me from my friends!
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Saying and doing are two things.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Saying gangs cheap.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Second thoughts are best.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Poetry
Seeing Off Xin Jian at Hibiscus Tower
芙蓉楼送辛渐Cold rain merged with the river as we entered Wu by night; at first light I see my friend off, and the Chu hills stand alone. If kin and friends in Luoyang should ask about me, say a single piece of ice-clear heart is in a jade vessel.
Proverb
Seldom lies the deil dead by the dyke side.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.
Proverb
Self do, self have.
A main proverb preserved in Walter K. Kelly's British-centered 1859 comparative collection. The exact oral origin is not asserted, and the historical saying is not presented as present-day fact or advice.