Meaning & Analysis
Being afraid of something distant or unlikely, worrying about an event or possibility that is not near or not likely to occur.
Insights
Unnecessary Anxiety
The proverb captures the folly of fearing remote or improbable dangers, highlighting the human tendency to distress oneself over imagined or distant troubles.
Premature Worry
It points to the self-defeating habit of anticipating misfortune long before there is any real threat, thereby wasting emotional energy and peace of mind.
Psychological Reflection
The saying reveals a universal psychological habit—catastrophizing about the future or conjuring anxieties over things that are unlikely ever to materialize, a tendency still prominent in modern mental health discourse.
Historical Usage
As recorded by Ray and Kelly, the phrase was used to chide or comfort those preoccupied with far-off worries, paralleling expressions like 'You are fear'd of the Day you never saw.'
Cultural Parallels
Similar proverbs in other languages, such as 'Don’t cross the bridge until you come to it,' reflect a widespread cultural wisdom advising against borrowing trouble from the future.
Rhetorical Devices
Irony
The phrase uses irony by labeling as 'fear' an emotion directed toward something far away or nonexistent, thus critiquing the irrationality of the worry.
Ellipsis
Its brevity and incomplete structure invite interpretation, lending the proverb flexibility and an almost proverbial wink to the listener.
Transcription
Quotations
*Of that which is never likely to happen.
You are fear'd of the Day you never saw. Spoken to them who vex themselves with unnecessary Fears and dismal Apprehensions. Eng. You are afraid of far enough.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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