He who has nothing can do nothing

A farmer with land can grow food; a carpenter with tools and wood can make something to sell; a person with education can teach and earn money.

This saying opines on the importance of what we have, material or intellectual. No doubt this originated in the days before social welfare when the poor were left to starve, but the lesson that can be taken from it is the importance of giving your children a good start. If you see to their education, training and possibly some savings to buy tools or start a business you help them to succeed.

It could be argued that anyone who possesses the will can succeed by hook or by crook. Even if you only have the gift of the gab by refusing to be beat you will find a way.

God defend me from still water and I'll keep myself from the rough.

Still water runs deep, and is generally regarded as dangerous, whereas the shallower ripples are safe to ford.

The big dangers of life are often such that we can do little about them, and we pray to God, if religious, or trust in fate if we are not, that they can be avoided.

Those problems that are within our individual and group strengths we should tackle in a prompt and wise manner. To expect God to attend to our every problem when we have been equipped to cope with them ourselves is obviously wrong. God helps those who help themselves.

He is idle that might be better employed

Do you ever get the feeling that you are wasting your time no matter how busy you are? We have a built in mechanism for checking the worthwhileness of what we do. Without it we would spend our time on trivia and irrelevant pursuits.

It is necessary from time to time to take stock of your activities and decide if your time is being used in a way that is likely to fulfill your goals.

Lost time is never found again so make the best use of your allotted span.

Spilt wine is worse than water

Spilt wine is worse than water

Spill some water on your clothes and it will soon dry with no harm done. Wine will most probably leave an unpleasant mark and a smell. You might also say that the wine cost money and the water was free.

The originators of proverbs and sayings worth remembering rarely content themselves with the obvious and this example requires further study.

Shakespeare has a line "Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds" taken to mean that the wrong acts of notable people are far worse than those of the ordinary classes. So here we are probably being told that persons of quality "the wine" when misbehaving cause more offense than the misdeeds of the ordinary person "the water". A specific example of this might be that if a lady of refinement and quality becomes dissolute it is more shocking than if a simple, uneducated girl does exactly the same thing.