Franklin uses the image of a medicinal herb to suggest that the passage of time can ease many forms of suffering. Grief, disappointment, conflict and other painful experiences may feel overwhelming when they are immediate, but their intensity often diminishes as circumstances change and emotional distance grows. Time can therefore act figuratively as a remedy by making some difficulties easier to understand or endure.

The saying is deliberately broad and should not be read as a literal medical claim that time cures every illness or problem. Some conditions require treatment, action or lasting adjustment, and some losses are never fully erased. Franklin’s broader point is that patience can itself have value: not every distress remains as acute as it first appears. The proverb therefore expresses confidence in the gradual capacity of time to soften pain and alter perspective.