Languagle #4: Italian
Chi dorme non piglia pesci
"Whoever sleeps catches no fish."
What it means
Used to say that sitting back and waiting gets you nothing, that whoever acts first, or stays alert, is the one who benefits.
What kind of saying it is
Oral tradition. Passed down by word of mouth. Sayings like this have no single author.
Where it comes from
It traces to the Roman playwright Plautus's comedy Rudens, written around the 3rd century BC, which has a line to the effect that those who like to stay in bed rest without profit and to their own cost. The saying kept its literal fishing sense for centuries after: a fisherman who slept in missed the hours the fish were actually biting.
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