- English translation
Pull up a chair and sit tight; things will settle down on their own.
- Literal wording
Set down a chair for it, and the matters will come to anchor.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying recommends meeting trouble with composure. Instead of rushing about when misfortune arrives, one should figuratively sit down, stay put, and let events take their course, trusting that the disturbance will subside in time. It favors patience over frantic intervention, not neglect of duties that genuinely require action.
Its closing image compares unsettled affairs to a vessel that eventually comes to rest at anchor. The rhyme between chair and settling makes the counsel memorable: patience and calm seating outlast the restless motion of circumstances.
- When it is used
Fits moments when someone is agitated by a sudden difficulty and the wiser course is to wait calmly rather than react. Offer it as reassurance to a worried friend, or as a reminder to oneself that a turbulent situation will likely calm down without frantic effort.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Pull up a chair and sit tight; things will settle down on their own.