Meaning & Analysis
It is comfortable and desirable to sleep when one's body is physically intact and free from injury.
Insights
The Value of Safety
The proverb advocates for prioritizing personal safety and security above all else. 'Sleeping' symbolizes a state of peace and tranquility, achievable only by keeping one's 'skin' metaphorically whole—free from the wounds of conflict, risk, or unnecessary trouble.
Prudence over Recklessness
It serves as a piece of practical advice promoting caution and risk aversion. The wisdom lies in recognizing and avoiding dangers, suggesting that a quiet, unharmed life is preferable to one of adventurous but perilous heroism.
Conflict Avoidance
The saying underscores the importance of avoiding conflict and confrontation to maintain peace of mind. It suggests that tranquility is a direct result of staying out of disputes that could lead to physical, emotional, or financial harm.
Historical Pragmatism
Reflecting the anxieties of historical periods where physical conflict was common, the proverb champions the practical wisdom of the common person, prioritizing survival and well-being over aristocratic or martial ideals of honor that often demanded risking one's life.
Psychology of Self-Preservation
The proverb taps into the fundamental human need for safety and security. It serves as a psychological defense or justification for avoiding conflict, reframing what might be judged as cowardice into a laudable act of prudence.
Critique of Heroism
This saying implicitly critiques cultures that glorify reckless bravery. It suggests that true wisdom lies not in seeking out danger for the sake of glory, but in skillfully navigating life to maintain peace and personal integrity.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
'Sleeping' serves as a potent metaphor for peace, security, and a life free from anxiety, while a 'whole skin' metaphorically represents a state of being unharmed and untroubled.
Synecdoche
The use of 'skin' to represent the entire person and their state of well-being is a classic example of synecdoche, making the abstract concept of safety tangible and visceral.
Understatement
The phrase 'it is good' is a masterful understatement for the profound desirability of being safe, which lends the proverb a calm, commonsensical, and memorable tone.
Transcription
Quotations
(to slepe).
It is best to be styll, Good slepinge in a hole skynne, ould foulkes do saye.
Sirs, we are men of peace, and loue to sleepe In our whole skins, and therefore quietnes is best.
If it be good sleeping in a whole skinne, it must needs be bad sleeping in a broken one.
For the old proverb's good, which long ha been, Says safest 'tis sleeping in a whole skin.
(to sleepe).
'Tis good sleeping in a whole skinne, I meane, I am very well at home in this house.
Every one willingly would sleep in a whole skin, say the English.
Good to sleep in a whole skin.
(in a sound Skin).
(to sleep).
Cross References
- See DÜR., I, no. 650.
Annotations
- An Apology of, or a Reflection upon, him that shuns Dangers.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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