What saying/cliché/proverb you grew up hearing, people use a lot etc. , that you do NOT think is true.

[WellThisWentWell]

I’ll start with

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
&
Life is short/ too short for....

On sticks and stones - I like the Divine Comedy version:

Sticks and stones may break my body but words can tear me apart.
So be careful what you tell me, spare a thought for my heart.

Broken bones fuse together, bruises never last for long,
But once they're said words stay spoken
And hearts stay broken from that moment on.

Red sky at night, shepherds delight,
red sky in the morning, shepherds warning.

Cows sitting down means it's going to rain.

Good/bad things come in 3's.

Load of bollocks.....

'She/he turned around and said...' why were they facing the other way??

'At the end of the day...' why not at the beginning or middle of the day??

"Everything happens for a reason"

Just no

@Manolin

I can't find any good sources for that being the full quotation. The earliest claims I can find for that is the 1990s, whereas "blood is thicker than water" as the full quotation has been around for hundreds of years.

As for the Arabic origin, that appears to compare blood to milk (i.e. siblings compared to children nursed by the same woman) again with the meaning that blood relations trump all others.

"Good things come to those that wait"

Never wake a sleeping baby. What a load of shit. Mine would have happily snoozed away all afternoon and then been up all night. Er, no thank you!

Another misquote is "he spends money like water" which makes no sense. You can't spend water! The correct saying is "money runs through his hands like water" but it seems to have fallen out of use.

Patience is a virtue, virtue is a grace, put it all together and you'll have a pretty face!

Said to me repeatedly by my Dad and sister!!!!

@LockdownMayhem - I understand what it means but I don't necessarily think it's true. I think it can encourage a stingy penny-pinching attitude that means opportunities are often missed just to save a few quid.

Glad it's worked for your grandmother though!

It's too cold to snow.

So how come it snows in the poles?!?

"Good manners cost nothing". Actually, they do cost.

It might be true to say,"Good manners will eat into your personal resources, whether material, emotional, physical or temporal, but it's worth it, because life would be generally unbearable unless people make these efforts as a matter of habit." It's not so snappy though

@MsTSwift

No good deed unpunished is true in the context of the PTA to be fair

Ok, maybe it is true in this case

"Everything gets better in the end."

Tell that to someone with terminal cancer. 👍

@trappedsincesundaymorn completely. No one found the best job, true love or anything by sitting and waiting.

My pet hate is 'blood is thicker than water'
I don't believe that family gets a pass just because they are family. My friends are worth more of my time than half my 'family'. Did hear a version that makes more sense though, blood of the covenent is thicker than the water of the womb 😁

‘If you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’

I imagine the good people of AIBU can’t stand this one.
In all seriousness though, can you imagine a world where people feel they must be silent as instead of telling someone they’re being a twat?

because at the end of the day means you can argue it all day but x point remains.

''‘If you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’

I imagine the good people of AIBU can’t stand this one. grin
In all seriousness though, can you imagine a world where people feel they must be silent as instead of telling someone they’re being a twat?''

Yea but you need to take proverbs in context, so obviously reprimanding somebody and calling somebody out on their behaviour isn't necessarily nice but it's not mean spirited. On the otherwise calling somebody unattractive or boring is an unnecessarily not nice thing to say.

If you try and don't succeed, try and try again.

I think it's much better to work out first whether what you were trying to do is worth doing after all!

It's better to regret something you did do, than something you didn't do.
This just can't work because if you do something, it means that there was something that you didn't do, so either way you end up with regrets that are dependent on the actions you previously took.

You can't have your cake and eat it.

It means you can't have it both ways or two good things at once. once the cake is eaten it's gone, doesn't exist anymore. I.e. you can't both posses it and eat it.

What's interesting in on here is seeing how we use clichés and proverbs incorrectly of put of context as they have been shortened or misheard.

@getherout34

''‘If you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’

I imagine the good people of AIBU can’t stand this one. grin
In all seriousness though, can you imagine a world where people feel they must be silent as instead of telling someone they’re being a twat?''

Yea but you need to take proverbs in context, so obviously reprimanding somebody and calling somebody out on their behaviour isn't necessarily nice but it's not mean spirited. On the otherwise calling somebody unattractive or boring is an unnecessarily not nice thing to say.

And yet many people the other day were telling an OP that they we BU for not telling their friend that they are fat when asked, surely that’s not actually a nice thing to do in that moment, however it would have likely been the correct thing to do to?

@worstwitch18

I do not think it matters which version you think is true for the purpose of this thread does it? I grew up hearing the proverb meaning that the bond between relatives is the strongest of all. That may be the case for many, but that is not my experience and looking around MN there are significant numbers of people who share my view. That is the point.

I think your Arabic interpretation is pulled from Wikipedia? My experience is that blood brothers can include those who are not from the same family or even the same tribe, neither blood nor milk. It can extend to non-Arabs who have shared life affirming events with Arabs, such as war, disaster, loss and even business.

''Looks don't matter''

Such bollox.

Men sweat,
Women perspire,
But ladies only glow.
Just Fuck Right Off.