- English translation
Do not mock someone’s fault today; tomorrow you may face the same trouble yourself.
- Literal wording
What you reproach me for today, you may fall into tomorrow.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying warns against taunting or reproaching another person over a flaw, mistake, or misfortune. Circumstances can change quickly, and the critic may later experience the very condition used to shame someone else; it does not condemn every form of constructive criticism.
It promotes restraint and humility rather than gloating. Remembering one’s own vulnerability to reversal, a person is urged to avoid harsh public reproach and the satisfaction of seeing others diminished.
- When it is used
Use it to rebuke someone ridiculing another person’s setback or weakness, especially when the same risk could plausibly affect the mocker later. It may also counsel discretion in criticism when reproach is harsh or derisive, rather than constructive.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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