It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling. It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.
(It is) an honour for a man to cease from strife. Proverbs 17:14; Proverbs 19:11 forbid beginning strife; this verse bids us to cease from it when it has been begun, which is more difficult, and therefore more glorious. Men think that to give up a strife once begun would detract from their power, wealth, wisdom, or determination. But it is really unseemly in a wise and large-minded man (so the Hebrew, ish, means, in contrast to "fool") to keep up strife, and is only the part of narrow-minded men and petty women.
But every fool will be meddling - in strife (Proverbs 17:14, end).