# Looking for idioms about experience **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2017, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677 "2017-11-15T09:30:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/1 "2017-11-15T09:30:25Z")
Spanish has a bunch of idioms or sentences which boil down to “you’re underestimating my experience, knowledge and threat level”. I’m sure English has its own colorful ways of saying the same thing, but I’m currently drawing a blank. Can you give me a few? Responses from other languages and questions about other idioms welcome 🙂 A few of the Spanish examples: - _no le metas a ése el dedo en la boca(, a ver si pierdes el brazo)_. Don’t stick your finger in that one’s mouth(, you might lose your arm). A reference to doing that to check if a baby is teething; the person being spoken of does have teeth and they’re sharp. - _antes que monja fui puta_. I was a whore before I entered the convent. Self-explanatory. Its opposite, _antes que puta fui monja y a veces me olvido que ya no estoy en el convento_, (before becoming a whore I was a nun and sometimes I forget I’m not in the convent anymore) is sometimes used to excuse brainfarts. - _más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo_. The devil knows more for being as old as he is than for being the devil. Don’t underestimate the knowledge of your elders. Corollary: underestimating their deviousness is also unhealthy. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/2 "2017-11-15T09:56:16Z")
More of a joke than an idiom, but: > [@Mark Twain](#): > > When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/3 "2017-11-15T12:10:36Z")
Is the English “Don’t teach your Grandma to suck eggs” an example of what you’re looking for? If so, the Thai อย่าสอนจระเข้ว่ายน้ำ may be another example: “Don’t teach a crocodile how to swim.” ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/4 "2017-11-15T12:29:27Z")
My granny used to say " I have forgotten more than you will ever know" My Daddy used to say " I can’t hear you, I 've got something in my eye" ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/5 "2017-11-15T12:42:28Z")
How about “I’ve got _x_ older than you” where x is some item–shoes, ties, leftovers in the refrigerator, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/6 "2017-11-15T12:54:14Z")
Eh, that could be inherited 🙂 I’ve got some items older than my grandparents… ---
**Author:** ![snowmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@snowmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowmaster)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/7 "2017-11-15T13:11:15Z")
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/8 "2017-11-15T14:27:43Z")
Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill. Sometimes rendered “Old age and treachery will overcome youth and vigor.” Based on several corny kung fu movies/shows: Never try to take the offered pebble from an old man’s hand. Based on another corny movie: “Do ya feel lucky … Punk?” That one is especially “you vs me” rather than a statement about the world that your audience has to realize is obliquely said about yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/9 "2017-11-15T14:33:18Z")
Youth is wasted on the young. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/10 "2017-11-15T14:43:32Z")
A well-known idiom is the “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” But it is by no means a particularly English idiom, antedating that language. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/11 "2017-11-15T15:00:32Z")
Don’t write checks your ass can’t cash. Old enough to know better, still too young to care. ---
**Author:** ![Borborygmi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/borborygmi/32/217_2.png) [@Borborygmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borborygmi)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/12 "2017-11-15T15:11:38Z")
If someone was underestimating Nava’s experience, knowledge and threat level — especially in a political context — I would advise him to be watch out because Nava “knows where the bodies are buried”. I generally don’t hear people say it about themselves (“I know where the bodies are buried”), though, so it may not fit Nava’s specific need here. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/13 "2017-11-15T15:18:51Z")
This doesn’t fit the parameters of the OP, but I’m posting because it’s about experience. **Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.** I’ve seen the phrase (or slight variation thereof) attributed to Will Rogers and Mark Twain, but it may have been around since the 13th Century. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/14 "2017-11-15T15:36:56Z")
This doesn’t fit what you are looking for, but my husband sometimes says, “old enough to know better, but too young to care.” I think that pretty much sums up the line between childhood and adulthood. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/15 "2017-11-15T15:41:45Z")
Experience is something you get right after you need it. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/16 "2017-11-16T01:03:14Z")
My personal favourite is “I’m not as green as I am cabbage-looking” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/17 "2017-11-16T01:33:47Z")
“I taught him everything he knows, but not everything I know.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/18 "2017-11-16T05:57:21Z")
A risque joke on the topic: [spoiler]A young bull and an old bull are standing in a field. They see some cows over on the other side of the field. The young bull says, “Hey, let’s run over there and fuck one of those cows.” The old bull says, “I’ve got a better idea. Let’s walk over there and fuck all of them.”[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/19 "2017-11-16T06:37:09Z")
My Daddy used to say “I am going to see a man about a horse” he meant he was going to see his bookie. I just knew he was gonna bring me a pony, everytime. Aw, me, I never did get that pony. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2017, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677/20 "2017-11-16T11:18:35Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > My Daddy used to say “I am going to see a man about a horse” he meant he was going to see his bookie. I’ve always heard that phrase with the meaning “I’m going to go urinate.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-idioms-about-experience/801677.md?page=2)