- English translation
Picking at every little fault only wears you out.
- Literal wording
Whoever scrutinizes will grow tired.
- Meaning and lesson
A person who scrutinizes others closely and holds them to account for every perceived slip is pictured as taking on a burden that falls back on themselves. The one engaged in exacting faultfinding, rather than the person judged, ends up drained.
The saying warns against relentless scrutiny of another person's words or actions. It discourages treating every detail as grounds for reproach, emphasizing the effort and exhaustion such constant faultfinding brings to the person who practices it.
- When it is used
Said to someone who keeps combing through another person's words or actions and reproaching them for each detail. It cautions them to stop, on the grounds that unrelenting, exacting faultfinding chiefly exhausts the one doing it.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Picking at every little fault only wears you out.