🚶♂️ Falling by the Wayside: Lost Seeds and Abandoned Pursuits 🌾
Definition
fall by the wayside, to - To drop out, fail to finish. The term comes from the Bible, specifically Jesus’s parable of the sower as related in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 13: “Behold, a sower went forth to sow and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up.” The seeds then are likened to the word of God, and the fowls to the wicked who “snatch up” the word from those who do not understand it. Subsequently, persons who strayed from the straight and narrow were said to fall by the wayside. Jonathan Swift included it in his Polite Conversation (1738), “If you fall by the way, don’t stay to get up again.”
Synonyms
- Fall off the radar - To disappear or not to be noticed
- Drop out - To quit or stop participating
- Fail to finish - Unable to complete something
- Cotton to - Lose interest or enthusiasm for something
Antonyms
- Stay the course - To keep going until the end despite difficulties
- Persevere - To continue steadfastly, especially in the face of difficulty
- Keep at it - To persist in spite of challenges
- Reach the finish line - To complete something successfully
Humor-Filled Quotes
- “If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular failure.” —John Kenneth Galbraith
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” —Winston Churchill
Proverbs
- “The race is not always to the swift but to those who keep on running.”
- “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Recommended Readings
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Books:
- The Tortoise and the Hare - Aesop’s Fables
- The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
- Polite Conversation - Jonathan Swift
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Songs:
- “Against All Odds” - Phil Collins
- “Don’t Stop Believin’” - Journey
- “We Shall Overcome” - Pete Seeger
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Movies:
- Rocky (1976)
- The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
- Forrest Gump (1994)
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Poetry:
- “If—” by Rudyard Kipling
- “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley
Farewell Thought 🌟
“Dear reader, may you never fall by the wayside in the grand narrative of your life. Keep sowing your seeds, nourishing your dreams, and persisting through adversities—because every stumble paves the way for an exhilarating comeback.”
- Ivy Lexicon
