Learning from adversity

Stumble on a stone once and go back to it, and you've earned whatever comes to you.

The proverb holds that a first misfortune can be excused as bad luck, but repeating the same mistake after being warned by experience is a choice. Whoever ignores a lesson they have already paid for has no grounds to complain about the consequences.

What a family does not teach a person, life will eventually teach them.

When relatives indulge someone so greatly that their character goes astray, the passage of time can force a correction that family guidance failed to provide.

A wise person learns the lesson from what happens to others.

The saying holds that real good sense shows in learning from what befalls other people. A sensible person takes heed of others' outcomes, usually as a warning, and adjusts their own conduct rather than suffering the same consequences personally. The point is drawing a lesson, not imitating others.

When the barber starts on your neighbor, get yourself ready for the same treatment.

The saying advises learning from trouble that has already reached someone nearby. In its traditional barber-and-beard image, another person’s experience serves as an early warning that a comparable risk may be approaching, so it is wiser to prepare than to wait passively.

A person once bitten by a snake becomes frightened at the sight of its tail.

After being hurt by something, a person may react with intense wariness whenever they encounter anything connected with the earlier danger. The experience makes fear and precaution arise quickly.