Meaning & Analysis
If your neighbor’s house is on fire, you should immediately take precautions to protect your own—because the danger may soon spread to you.
Insights
Caution from Others' Misfortune
Urges vigilance and preparedness in response to others' suffering, warning that the same fate may soon befall you if you do not take heed.
Shared Vulnerability
Highlights the interconnectedness of individuals and communities—what affects one person may easily affect another, especially in times of crisis or instability.
Moral Wakefulness
Encourages proactive reflection and self-correction when witnessing the downfall or punishment of others, suggesting their fate may be a mirror or foreshadowing of your own.
Erasmus and Classical Legacy
Drawn from Erasmus’s *Adagia* (862C), ‘Tua res agitur, cum proximus ardet paries’ (‘It concerns you when your neighbor’s wall is on fire’) reflects Roman wisdom on shared risk, suggesting that one must act not out of schadenfreude but out of rational self-interest and empathy.
Communal Ethics in Early Modern Europe
In early modern towns with wooden homes tightly packed together, one fire often led to another. The proverb wasn’t just moral—it was materially urgent. Watching another’s misfortune without acting was both foolish and dangerous.
Against Complacency and Hubris
The proverb critiques those who think themselves immune to others’ struggles. It serves as a sobering reminder that harm can spread rapidly, and detachment or mockery may invite one’s own downfall.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The burning house metaphor vividly represents crisis, danger, or punishment, allowing it to serve as a symbol for moral, social, or political breakdown.
Didactic Tone
The proverb employs a moralizing voice to instruct listeners or readers in prudent, ethical behavior through cautionary imagery.
Allegory
The neighbor’s house functions allegorically as a representation of ‘the other’—what befalls them is a lesson for you, suggesting deeper themes of empathy, humility, and foresight.
Transcription
Quotations
Tua res agitur, cum proximus ardet paries.
Whan my neybours house is a fyre: I can nat be out of thought for myn owne.
When thy neighboures house is a fyer, thy staffe standeth nexte the dore.
When neighbours next house burnes, tis tyme thereof take hede.
Looke to thy owne house when thy neighbours doth burne.
Tush a shadow without a substance, and a feare without a cause: but yet if my neighbours house bee on fire, let me seeke to saue mine owne.
(is in fyr tak tent [heed] to thy awin).
(is on fire, looke to thine owne).
(is on fire, looke to thine owne).
thou hast neede to take heede, when thy neighbours house is on fire.
Who sees his Nighbours House burne, ought to feare his owne. Mea-[ning]: not to be glad of an other Mans Losse.
when your neighbours house is on fire beware your own.
When there is fire in the neighbourhood, bring water to thy own house.
When the neighbours house is a fire, carry water to thine own house.
[As in a1598 Ferg.].
(is on fire, beware of thine own).
When your neighbours house is on fire, then look to your own.
(is on fire, beware thy own).
(is in danger take tent to thine own).
When the next House is a Fire, it's high Time to look to thy own.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.