Meaning & Analysis
No matter how much you worry (even a whole pound's worth), it will not reduce your debt by even an ounce—anxiety alone cannot resolve obligations.
Insights
Futility of Worry
Emphasizes that worrying about a problem is unproductive; only practical action, not anxiety, can address and solve real issues such as debt.
Action over Anxiety
Promotes the value of patience, industry, and initiative, suggesting that active effort, not passive concern, is the path to resolving difficulties.
Emotional Cost
Suggests that excessive care or sorrow can drain one emotionally without bringing any tangible benefit, warning against the psychological burden of unrelieved concern.
Historical Symbolism
In an era when debt was a common and often ruinous threat, the proverb’s focus on measurable weights (pound, ounce) makes the futility of worry concrete, reflecting daily economic realities and the limitations of emotional response.
Cultural Resonance
Variations are found across languages and centuries, underscoring a universal human truth about the distinction between feeling and doing—echoed in proverbs like 'Sorrow will pay no debt.'
Psychological Dimensions
Unveils the counterproductive cycle of rumination, highlighting the need to redirect mental energy from anxiety to action for emotional and practical relief.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
Contrasts the abundance of 'care' with the smallness of 'debt' left unpaid, sharpening the distinction between worry and effective action.
Metaphor
Treats care and debt as measurable commodities, reinforcing the lesson through the language of commerce and accounting.
Alliteration
The repeated 'p' sounds in 'pound' and 'pay' contribute to the proverb's rhythmic appeal and memorability.
Transcription
Quotations
(A pound of sorrow).
(One pound of care payes not).
For a hundreth cart loades of thought, will neuer paie one ownce of debts.
(cair payes not).
An ownce of debt will not pay a pound of care. —Nay a pound of care, will not pay an ounce of debt.
A pound of care payes a dram of debt.
A hundred crowns of melancholy will not pay a half pennyworth of debt.
Care neere paid a pound of debt.
(A hundred cart-load of thoughts, pay not).
*Ital. An hundred cart-load of thoughts will not pay an ounce of debt.
(A pound of car'l nut pay).
*Care here is taken for Trouble, Vexation, and Concern, by which no Business will be effected; but rather by Patience and Industry.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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