How would you explain the proverb early to bed early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise answer in 100 words?

This page is about the saying "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise"

Possible meaning:
It is good for us to sleep early in the evening and wake early in the morning.

Note:
rise (verb) = get out of bed (after sleeping) | healthy (adj.) = well; free from illness | wealthy (adj.) = rich | wise (adj.) = having knowledge, experience and good judgement

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Contributor: Josef Essberger

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Early to bed and early to rise makes and man healthy, wealthy and wise

What's the meaning of the phrase 'Early to bed and early to rise makes and man healthy, wealthy and wise'?

Literal meaning.

What's the origin of the phrase 'Early to bed and early to rise makes and man healthy, wealthy and wise'?

The length and precision of this proverb leave little room for interpretation as to its meaning. Like many improving mottos, for example 'a rolling stone gathers no moss' and 'a stitch in time saves nine', it was an encouragement to hard, diligent work. The earliest record of a proverb that approximates to our current version that I can find in print is in The Book of St. Albans, printed in 1486:

As the olde englysshe prouerbe sayth in this wyse. Who soo woll ryse erly shall be holy helthy & zely.

Note: the Middle English word zely comes down to us now as 'silly'. This has numerous meanings, commonly 'foolish'. The 1486 meaning was 'auspicious; fortunate'. So 'holy helthy & zely' meant 'wise, healthy and fortunate', which isn't so far from 'healthy, wealthy and wise'.

The description of it as 'old English' in 1486 does place this expression as one of the oldest phrases still in use in everyday English. The earliest version that I know of of the current form of the proverb was printed in John Clarke's Paroemiologia Anglo-Latina in 1639:

Earely to bed and earely to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

The person most associated with the phrase and who brought it into common usage in the USA was Benjamin Franklin. Poor Richard's Almanack, which was an annual journal published by Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym of Poor Richard between 1732 and 1758. It included the usual almanac fare of maxims, poetry, weather predictions and astrological ravings.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise is found in the 1735 edition. There's good reason to believe that Franklin endorsed the proverb's uplifting message; it is certainly in keeping with the numerous proverbs of earnest intent that were published in Poor Richard before they were seen elsewhere.

Given the social conventions of the day, Franklin wasn't especially bothered when women got to work. The typographic conventions of the day also involved the use of the long 's', which appears similar to a lowercase 'f'. Present day transcriptions lead us to believe that getting a good night's sleep will make us 'healthy, wealthy and wife'. At least Franklin avoided 'where the bee sucks, there suck I'.

Later American commentators have had some fun at Franklin's expense. In 1928, Carl Sandburg suggested that 'Early to bed and early to rise and you never meet any prominent people'. In the New Yorker, February 1939, James Thurber turned it round with:

Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy and wealthy and dead.

See also: the List of Proverbs and 'the early bird catches the worm'.

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A saying of Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanack.

QUIZ

QUIZ YOURSELF ON "WAS" VS. "WERE"!

Were you ready for a quiz on this topic? Well, here it is! See how well you can differentiate between the uses of "was" vs. "were" in this quiz.

Question 1 of 7

“Was” is used for the indicative past tense of “to be,” and “were” is only used for the subjunctive past tense.

Words nearby Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise

early on, early purple orchid, Early Renaissance, early saxifrage, Early Sunday Morning, Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise, early to bed, early to rise (makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise), early-type star, early warning, early-warning system, early wood

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

How to use Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise in a sentence

• As an example of good science-and-society policymaking, the history of fluoride may be more of a cautionary tale.

• When cities started adding chlorine to their water supplies, in the early 1900s, it set off public outcry.

• The citizens of Stevens Point defeated fluoridation by a healthy margin.

• In the first episode, an officer is shown video of himself shooting and killing a man.

• That man was Xavier Cortada, a gay man who wrote of his frustration that he and his partner of eight years were unable to marry.

• Davy looked around and saw an old man coming toward them across the lawn.

• The supernaturalist alleges that religion was revealed to man by God, and that the form of this revelation is a sacred book.

• The most High hath created medicines out of the earth, and a wise man will not abhor them.

• He remembered something—the cherished pose of being a man plunged fathoms-deep in business.

• On the thirteenth of the same month they bound to the stake, in order to burn alive, a man who had two religious in his house.

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