Discover 10 proverbs that get us and why they still work!

Image: Elena Mozhvilo

Who said we need school to learn the most important lessons? Just kidding, school does matter. But do you know what is another source of knowledge and wisdom? Proverbs! In this article, we’ve listed 10 proverbs that you have probably heard and used, but never thought about where they come from. Why is it that we don’t have to count our chickens before they hatch? How come books are not to be judged by their cover? Read on and learn all about these expressions!

Image: Boris Smokrovic

Have you ever shown up late to a yard sale and found the good stuff already gone? You should’ve got there earlier, first even! That’s when you find the best things and that’s the essence of this saying.

First recorded in the 1600s, it is a proverb that reminds everyone that being early often gives you a leg up. For example, what about those early risers who get the best donuts while you’re still well asleep?

It’s not just about waking up early, though, it’s about being ready to make the most out of every opportunity. So, if you’re not really a morning person, don’t worry! Just be an "early bird" in your own way, timing is everything!

Image: Alena Jarrett

Do you know that kind of friend who always says they’ll help you move but conveniently disappears when the truck pulls up? That’s why this proverb exists.

This proverb dates back to the 1700s, and it’s a way of saying, "Show me, don’t tell me." Think about the neighbor who says they care about the community but never picks up litter, versus the one who just rolls up their sleeves and gets to work.

We trust what we see, not just what we hear, naturally. Life is full of promises, but only actions can turn them into reality. So next time someone offers to help, maybe just hand them a broom and see what happens.

Image: K Kannan

Planning ahead is key to leading an organized life, but a very different thing is to plan based on something you think will happen, only to find out it won’t! Imagine the chaos.

That’s the essence of this proverb which originated in Aesop’s fable, as a lesson not to plan on something before things are certain. Maybe you’ve booked a vacation before your bonus came through or splurged on new shoes before payday. Can you relate to this? We can, because it’s quite easy to get ahead of ourselves. But as life often proves, things don’t always pan out. The saying isn’t about squashing your excitement; it’s just a reminder to stay grounded.

Image: Andrew Butler

Think about daily scenarios like blaming the oven when the cookies burned due to your lack of attention! We know we’ve all been there! We know we said actions speak louder than words, but if you choose to go with your words, remember to stay honest!

This proverb has been around since the ancient Greeks and Romans, but Benjamin Franklin helped popularize it in the country. It’s not just about being virtuous, honesty is practical. Let’s be honest, lies always find a way of snowballing until you can’t keep them straight. Plus, most people can spot a lie a mile away. Honesty is always the best policy!

Image: Jon Tyson

We’re not trying to bring tragic memories back, but do you remember your first time dealing with a computer crash and losing all your work? That’s when you either cry or channel this saying.

This phrase, widely used in the mid-20th century and popularized by the Kennedys, is kind of a self-pep talk. It’s about finding strength when things feel quite impossible, like losing all the work you had stored on your computer.

Sure, tough times test us, but they also show us what we’re truly made of. And if you come to think about it, tough times are probably more than you can even remember. But the good news is that you’re still going strong, proof that resilience works!

Image: Ella Jardim

Publishing houses heard this proverb and said: "Oh, really? Check this out," and started editing beautifully designed covers that make us wonder if not judging a book by its cover is indeed good advice. However, regardless of how beautiful a cover is, you never know what you’ll find inside and the only way to do so is to read the whole book. So, that is what this proverb is all about.

It first appeared in the 1800s to teach us that appearances are only that and we’re not to be fooled by them. Maybe it’s that shy person who turns out to be a karaoke star or the plain-looking gift that hides the most thoughtful surprise.

We’ve all been guilty of snap judgments that turned out wrong. In those cases, we’d do good to remember that some of the best things in life are hidden in plain sight.

Image: Annie Spratt

Have you ever found a coupon for 20% off right after someone told you it’s a waste of time to clip them? Benjamin Franklin would be proud of you!

This saying is all about the joy of long-term thinking, and small savings adding up, just like stashing loose change in a jar. Now, don’t get us wrong, it’s not about being miserly, but about valuing every little bit. Remember when you skipped the fancy coffee for a week and could treat yourself to dinner instead? That’s the power of this proverb. From comparing gas prices to reusing that gift bag, every little "saved penny" is a win.

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Geoffrey Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales gave us great things, among which we can find one of the most valuable lessons in life: potiusque sero quam nunquam. Don’t you speak Latin? Don’t worry, the translation is "better late than never."

How many times have you thought it was too late to make that house improvement? Or maybe you thought you were too old to start studying a new language. Well, there’s no such thing as "too late" or "too old" for this saying.

The point is, showing up, no matter when, matters more than sitting it out. Life doesn’t come with perfect timing, so cut yourself some slack. That late call or project? It’s still appreciated. Trust us, nobody’s keeping a stopwatch.

Image: Alice Donovan Rouse

Picture this: You’re making a crossword puzzle, answers flowing right in front of you, but you come across one definition you simply cannot figure out. You spend hours on it, only to have someone instantly spot the answer for you. This doesn’t mean they are better than you, it means that two heads are much better than one.

First recorded in the Book of Proverbs from 1546, the lesson behind this proverb is to resort to extra help every time we need it, or even when we don’t exactly need it but want to see a project unfold smoothly and to its best potential.

You know, it is more fun to tackle challenges together, there’s beauty in sharing ideas, splitting the effort, and laughing along the way, don’t you think?

Image: Jakub Kapusnak

Nowadays, it’s not very common to see people going grocery shopping with a basket in which to put the eggs. However, the wisdom behind this proverb is timeless. Do you know what it means?

In short, this proverb prevents us from putting all of our faith into just one option. The clearest scenario is investments. Any expert in the field will tell you to put a little money into each of your investment choices. Why? Because if one of them fails, you have backup plans!

Life is unpredictable, so why risk everything on a single bet? Think of it as diversifying your happiness. After all, it is better to have a few baskets than just a broken one.

Translation and interpretation

Was the forbidden fruit really an apple? 10 Bible surprises

What if some of the Bible stories you grew up with aren't exactly what the Bible says? Was the forbidden fruit really an apple? Were there actually three Wise Men? Did "God helps those who help themselves" really come from the Bible? Over centuries, translations, traditions, and famous works of art have added details that became so familiar, we stopped questioning them. But go back to the texts, and some of these stories look surprisingly different. From Eve's "apple" to the date of Jesus' birth, here are 10 familiar parts of the Bible that may not be quite what we remember.

When you picture the Garden of Eden, what fruit comes to mind? Most people imagine an apple, but there's just one problem: the Bible never says it was an apple.

In the Book of Genesis, the fruit is simply called "the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The original Hebrew text uses the word peri, which simply means "fruit." The apple connection came centuries later, largely through the Latin translation. The Latin word malum can mean both "apple" and "evil," making it an especially fitting symbol for the story. Over time, that association spread through Christian art and literature. Famous works such as Albrecht Dürer’s 1504 engraving Adam and Eve (also known as The Fall of Man) helped cement the image of Eve holding an apple. Today, it's one of the most famous scenes in history, even though the original biblical text doesn’t identify the fruit as an apple at all.

The story of Jesus' birth is so famous that most of us picture the Three Wise Men, sometimes called the Three Kings, standing beside the manger. But the thing is, over the centuries, the story picked up a few details that aren't actually in the Bible.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the only Gospel that mentions these visitors, they are described simply as Magi from the East. The original Greek word, magoi, referred to learned scholars, astrologers, or priests from Persia or Babylon, not kings. But where did the number three come from? Matthew lists three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but never says how many visitors brought them. Over the centuries, people naturally assumed there must have been three Magi, one for each gift. Even their familiar names, Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar, were added later by Christian tradition. So, neither the number of visitors nor their names appears anywhere in the biblical text.

Whether it's used to motivate a friend, encourage a family member, or push yourself to finally make a difficult decision, "God helps those who help themselves" is one of the most familiar religious sayings in America. But here's the surprise: those words never appear in the Bible.

The idea can be traced to ancient Greek sources, including Aesop’s Fables, where the saying appears in an earlier form: "The gods help them that help themselves." The exact modern wording was written by English politician Algernon Sidney in 1698, but it was Benjamin Franklin who helped make it part of American culture when he included it in his 1736 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanack.

Many teenagers have heard "Cleanliness is next to godliness" when it was time to clean their rooms. But despite sounding like a Bible verse, the phrase never appears in Scripture.

The Bible, particularly Leviticus, does contain extensive laws requiring people to wash their bodies and clothes in certain circumstances, especially before religious rituals. But the famous saying itself came much later. In 1605, Francis Bacon wrote in The Advancement of Learning that "cleanness of body" was connected to reverence for God. Then, in 1786, it was Methodist leader John Wesley who used the wording we recognize today in a sermon: "Cleanliness is indeed next to Godliness." Over time, the phrase became a familiar saying that many people simply assumed came from the Bible.

When it comes to famous dates, December 25 may be the most recognizable of all, universally associated with Christmas. But here's the surprising part: the Bible never gives any specific date for Jesus' birth.

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke describe the Nativity but never provide a calendar date, so how did December 25 become Christmas? There are two leading theories. The first is that the Roman Church was celebrating Christmas on December 25 by 336 AD, during Constantine's reign, possibly choosing the date to coincide with existing Roman winter festivals and make it easier to convert the empire to Christianity. The second points to an early Christian tradition that calculated Jesus' birth date from the supposed date of his crucifixion, eventually arriving at December 25.

The story of Jonah and the Whale is so famous that it has appeared literally or symbolically in innumerable works of art and literature, from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508-1512) to Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. But there's a small problem with the title we've given it: the Bible doesn’t actually say it was a whale.

In the Old Testament, the original Hebrew text of Jonah 1:17 uses the words dag gadol, meaning "great fish" or "large fish"; it doesn't identify the creature as a whale, or even specify what kind of fish it was. Most modern English translations therefore stick with "great fish," but the familiar "whale" interpretation developed through older translations and later European tradition, eventually becoming so widespread that "Jonah and the Whale" became the name almost everyone recognizes.

Just as we've always pictured the forbidden fruit as an apple, many of us also assume the serpent in the Garden of Eden is the devil himself. But the original story is a little more complicated.

A plain reading of Genesis depicts the creature simply as a serpent or snake, using the Hebrew word nachash. It describes the serpent as clever and crafty, but it never calls it Satan or explicitly identifies it as the devil. So where did the connection come from? The answer comes from later parts of the Bible, particularly the New Testament. In Revelation 12:9 and 20:2, Satan is called "the ancient serpent" (ho ophis ho archaios in Greek), connecting him to the snake of Eden. Over time, Christian tradition applied that later connection back to Genesis, leading to the familiar belief that the serpent was Satan himself.

Many of us remember Samson for his legendary strength and the long hair that was said to be the source of his power. His story with Delilah is one of the Bible's most famous tales of betrayal, but there's one detail some people may have gotten wrong: Delilah didn't actually cut his long hair.

In Judges 16:19, Delilah has Samson's hair shaved while he sleeps on her lap. The text says she called for a man to do the shaving; it never says she did it herself. Yet paintings, films, and other retellings have often shown Delilah wielding the scissors herself, cementing that image in popular culture. It can be considered a small detail, but it’s a great example of how easily familiar Bible stories can pick up elements that aren't actually in the original text.

Many of us think of the Bible as a single book, written at one particular time by one author, or perhaps a handful of them. After all, that's how it looks when you pick one up in a hotel room, but its history is far more complicated.

The Bible is actually a collection of books written by over 40 authors over roughly 1,500 years, from about 1400 BC to AD 100. The exact number of books varies by religious tradition: Protestant Bibles contain 66 books, while Catholic and Orthodox traditions include additional books. Across these different traditions, the writings were produced by kings, prophets, fishermen, and scholars in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. They also span a tremendous range of literary styles, including history, poetry, songs, laws, letters, and prophecy. So while we hold it as one book today, the Bible is actually a collection of many different writings produced across centuries.

Many people assume that at least a few original fragments of the Bible must still exist somewhere. It would be incredible if they did, but none of the original manuscripts, known as autographs, have survived.

The earliest biblical texts were written on fragile materials such as papyrus and animal skins, which could deteriorate through humidity, heat, handling, and simple age. Wars, fires, and other destruction also contributed to their disappearance. So how do we know what the originals said? Through a technique called textual criticism: expert scholars compare thousands of handwritten copies, ancient translations, and quotations from early Christian writers. When they find passages that match across different sources, or differences that reveal how a text changed over time, they can work backward to determine what the original most likely said, even though the original manuscripts themselves are gone.