By the husk you may guess at the nut. [ Proverb ]

Live thou! and of the grain and husk, the grape,
And ivy berry, choose; and still depart
From death to death thro' life and life, and find
Nearer and ever nearer Him, who wrought
Not Matter, nor the finite-infinite,
But this main miracle, that thou art thou,
With power on thine own act and on the world. [ Alfred Tennyson ]

Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling of the fresh life within that withers and bursts the husk. [ George Macdonald ]