he that stays in the valley will not get over the hill

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

One must take risks to achieve success

Literally: a person staying in a low area cannot cross a high area

Examples

He knew that he had to leave his comfort zone, because he that stays in the valley will not get over the hill

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “he that stays in the valley will not get over the hill” mean?

One must take risks to achieve success Literally: a person staying in a low area cannot cross a high area

Is “he that stays in the valley will not get over the hill” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.