Have you heard of the witty saying: "Give a pig a finger and he'll want the whole hand"? I know pigs have voracious appetites. Or pigs are used in the expression of squalor, base desires (like that of the Ice age squirrel). You can run your imagination about your hands. I associate usefulness and work with hands. And we can do productive things of good work with our hands. Every finger lifted in coordination with all nine fingers, some have eleven, is of great asset to our whole body. Heard of "lend a hand"? As I write this post, what I think of the saying Give a pig a finger and he'll want the whole hand : it has to do with ourselves. Sometimes, it's the influence of others, too. To give in to the base, lawless "evil inclination" in us-- even just an attempt at casting a finger-- a "try-out", a "just-this-once" in it is worth rethinking and redirecting those inclinations first : IF it doesn't promote better life, IF it doesn't prolong/lengthen life, IF it doesn't give your dreams and ambitions a better position in life IF it doesn't value life and the life of others ... then, that pig mustn't stand a chance at having a grip and possession of your entire body, mind and soul. Thank you.
I haven't heard that saying before, but I did think long and hard and after much research on pigs, I have to tell you that they don't stand a chance at having a grip and possession of my entire body, mind and soul'. Proof they can't cope with Give a pig a finger and he'll want the whole hand"
Haha, I never heard of the pig either, but I have heard something very close in the Spanish language that could be the equivalent and explanation: "dale a alguien la mano y se toma la pata" (literally, give someone your hand and he/she will claim your foot") This saying is used when someone is abusing of one's confidence or goodwill giving the person something and having this person asking for more.in an evidently abusive manner.
That's really close to what I was thinking. Mine was inspired by my mother in law. Do the dishes for her once, and she'll never wash a dish again. Vacuum her floor and she expects the mantle to be dusted off. Buy her a pack of cigarettes and all her money goes towards alcohol after that. Feed her dogs one morning, and they'll never eat or drink water again if you aren't there. Help her with the electric bill and soon you'll find every one of her bills waiting for you. She is retired and in good enough shape to do all her own chores. She just has other priorities. Like drinking. And playing facebook games...
Of course the saying implies that the pig is human! In Romanian, the saying goes like this "Give someone a finger and they will take your whole hand", which is really similar to the one in English. I've had it happen to me more than I would've wanted, probably because of my "helping hand" attitude. Whenever someone needs some help, I'm always the first one to "give him a finger". However, if the person in need of help starts abusing me for my help/money, I'll stop helping them. For example, I've had an old friend ask me for a small amount of money out of the blue. Sure, I said. Well, now I've opened the Pandora's box, or so it seems. Even yesterday he kept contacting me, this time asking for a huge amount of money! I just told him that I'm out of the city at the moment, but I don't think that'll stop him from calling again.