Forbearance toward others

An honest mistake can always be put right.

The saying holds that an honest error carries no lasting guilt, because once someone points it out it can be taken back and set right, not merely overlooked. What deserves reproach is a deliberate act, not an accidental slip made without intent.

Let one harsh word slide, and you will be spared a thousand more.

When someone throws a hurtful word at you, the wise move is to let it drift past without answering. Ignoring that single remark spares you the many harsher words that would follow if you struck back; the 'thousand' is hyperbole, not a literal count.

Do not take a dispute with a neighbor to the limit, but when you wash a garment, make it truly clean.

The saying advises proportion and discernment. In dealings with a neighbor, even during conflict, one should figuratively hold back from excessive escalation so that goodwill can survive the quarrel and a passing dispute does not become lasting hostility.

Children are God's dear ones.

The saying asks adults to treat young children gently. Calling them the beloved of God is an affectionate appeal to tenderness rather than a formal doctrinal claim, and it makes harshness toward them feel out of place. Anyone tempted to lose patience is reminded that a child holds a cherished, protected position.

Constant blame drives loved ones apart.

The saying warns that close relationships cannot survive an endless stream of affectionate reproach, the hurt complaints intimates voice to one another rather than harsh insults. One such complaint may clear the air, but when it is repeated again and again, it gradually drives the loved ones apart, and affection gives way to resentment.

Greet them kindly in the morning rather than hurling abuse; the one who forgives is noble.

The saying advises that when you meet someone who angered you the day before, you should greet them warmly instead of insulting or reviling them, which is the sense of the verb set against the morning greeting. A fresh day is treated as a chance to set aside yesterday's friction through ordinary courtesy.

If you choose to live alongside someone, you must put up with the demands that come with them.

Close association is not limited to companionship’s pleasant side. Anyone who enters a relationship, household, or partnership should expect to bear some of the other person’s habits, needs, and difficulties.

Keep your fool happy: bake him some sweet cookies and hand them over.

The saying recommends managing a foolish or ill-mannered person through gentleness rather than confrontation. Instead of arguing with someone who will not listen to reason, one should humor them and even sweeten them with treats, because quarreling with such a person only produces more trouble.

A child is never truly an enemy to their parents.

The saying holds that kinship between parents and children endures even when a child’s conduct, resentment, or rejection makes the relationship look openly hostile.

A man dying of thirst will break the trough to get at the water.

The picture is of someone parched for water who, straining to reach a drink, forcefully smashes the vessel that holds it, whether basin, trough, or cistern. The breakage is not an act of spite. It is the side effect of a craving too strong to be handled with care.

Forgiving people are admirable.

The saying commends forgiveness by portraying people known for pardoning others in warmly favorable terms. Its focus is not on a particular offense, but on the esteem attached to a forgiving character.

When a base man reviles a noble one, the noble counts it a blessed day.

The saying holds that abuse from a contemptible person does no harm to someone of real worth. Instead, it confirms that worth. The noble one has no reason to take offense and can greet the insult as a sign of good fortune. The 'dewy' day is figurative: a fresh, auspicious day, not weather.