Красота не спасет мир

The truth is not in guilt. There is no healthy spirit in a healthy body. But there are winged expressions, the meaning of which we do not really know. There is an opinion that a truly educated person is distinguished by the ability to choose the right words in any situation. This is extremely difficult to do if you do not know the meaning of certain words. The same thing happens with well-known catchphrases: some of them are so replicated in false meanings that few people remember their original meaning.

Website We need to use the right words in the right contexts. The most common misconceptions are gathered in this material.

“Work is not a wolf, it will not run into the forest.”

• Wrong context: Work's not going anywhere, let's put it off.
• The right context: The work will have to be done anyway.

Those who utter this proverb now do not take into account that the wolf used to be perceived in Russia as an animal that is not amenable to domestication, which is guaranteed to escape to the forest, while the work will not disappear and it will still have to be performed.

"In a healthy body a healthy mind"

• Wrong context: Keeping the body healthy, a person retains mental health.
• The right context: We must strive for harmony between body and spirit.

Juvenal’s quote, “Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano,” is taken out of context. We need to strive for harmony between body and spirit, because in reality it is rare.

"Beauty will save the world"

• The Wrong Context: Beauty Will Save the World
• The right context: Beauty will not save the world.

This phrase attributed to Dostoevsky was actually put into the mouth of the hero of the Idiot, Prince Myshkin. Dostoevsky himself in the course of the development of the novel consistently demonstrates how wrong Myshkin is in his judgments, perception of the surrounding reality and, in particular, this maxim.

“Life is short, art is eternal.”

• Wrong context: True art will live on even after the death of the author.
• The right context: Life is not enough to master all art.

In the Latin phrase “Ars longa, vita brevis” art is not “eternal”, but “long”, that is, “extensive”: it is here that you will have to devote a lifetime to the study of art, but, most likely, you will not have time to read all the books anyway.

"And you, Brutus?"

• Wrong context: Surprise, appeal to a traitor who was trusted.
• The right context: Threat, "you're next."

According to one version, Caesar adapted the words of the Greek expression, which became a proverb among the Romans. The full sentence should be: “And you, my son, will taste power.” After uttering the first words of the phrase, Caesar conjured Brutus, foreshadowing his violent death.

"Thinking through a tree"

• Incorrect Context: Speaking/writing is confusing and lengthy; going into unnecessary detail without limiting your thought.
• The right context: Look from every angle.

In the “Word of Igor’s regiment”, this quote looks like this: “The thought spread across a tree, a gray wolf on the ground, a gray eagle under the clouds.” The mouse is a squirrel.

"The people are silent"

• Wrong context: People are passive, indifferent to everything.
• The right context: People refuse to accept what is imposed on them.

In the finale of Pushkin’s tragedy Boris Godunov, the people are silent not because they do not care about pressing problems, but because they do not want to accept a new tsar:
“Masalski: People! Mary Godunova and her son Fyodor poisoned themselves with poison. Why are you silent?
Cry: Long live Tsar Dimitri Ivanovich!
The people are silent.”

“Man was made for happiness like a bird for flight.”

• The Wrong Context: Man was born to be happy.
• The right context: Happiness is impossible for man.

This winged expression belongs to Korolenko, in whom in the story “Paradox” it is pronounced by an unfortunate disabled person from birth, without hands, earning food for his family and himself by writing sayings and aphorisms. In his mouth, this phrase sounds tragic and refutes itself.

"Truth in Wine"

• Incorrect Context: The person who drinks is telling the truth.
• The right context: In wine may be truth, but health is in water.

The translation of the Latin proverb “In vino veritas, in aqua sanitas”. It should sound like “In wine, in water, health.”

The Moor has done his job, the Moor may go.

• The Wrong Context: Of Shakespeare's Othello.
• The right context: Cynical about a man whose services are no longer needed.

This expression has nothing to do with Shakespeare, as it is borrowed from F. Schiller’s drama The Conspiracy of Fiesco in Genoa (1783). This phrase is pronounced there by the Moor, who proved unnecessary after he helped Count Fiesco organize a Republican uprising against the tyrant of Genoa Doge Doria.

Let a hundred flowers bloom.

• Wrong context: The richness of options and diversity is a good thing.
• The right context: Let the critics criticize.

The slogan “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools compete” was put forward by the emperor Qin Shihuang, who united China. The campaign to encourage criticism and glasnost proved a trap when it was announced that the slogan was part of another campaign, titled "Let the snake stick out its head."