Proverbs Around the World

(Najamuddin Ghanghro, Karachi (original from Larkana))

Proverbs Around the World

Behind an able man there are always other able men.
Chinese Proverb

The absent are always at fault.
Spanish Proverb

Praise the ripe field not the green corn.
Irish Proverb

Teeth placed before the tongue give good advice.
Italian Proverb

Years and sins are always more than owned.
Italian Proverb

Nodding the head does not row the boat.
Irish Proverb

It is not good to be alone, even in Paradise.
Yiddish Proverb

There is no eel so small but it hopes to become a whale.
German Proverb

In America an hour is forty minutes.
German Proverb

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
Chinese Proverb

It is a good answer which knows when to stop.
Italian Proverb

With nice appearance people want to be deceived.
German Proverb

To ask is no sin and to be refused is no calamity.
Russian Proverb

Many things are lost for want of asking.
English Proverb

A man without a wife is like
a man in winter without a fur hat.
Russian Proverb

The beautiful is less what one sees than what one dreams.
Belgian Proverb

Beauty and chastity are always quarreling.
Spanish Proverb


He who is outside the door has already a good part of his journey behind him.
Dutch Proverb

For a web begun God sends thread.
Italian Proverb

If you are bitter at heart,
sugar in the mouth will not help you.
Yiddish Proverb

Boasting is not courage.
African Proverb

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
Chinese Proverb

Many complain of their looks, but none of their brains.
Yiddish Proverb

"But" is a fence over which few leap.
German Proverb

He who speaks the truth must have one foot in the stirrup.
Armenian Proverb

A bad cause requires many words.
German Proverb

To change and to improve are two different things.
German Proverb

If you hear that a mountain has moved, believe; but if you hear that a man has changed his character, believe it not.
Islamic Proverb

If you do not drive in sleet to the woods, singing, you have to drive crying.
Czech Proverb

The discontented child cries for toasted snow.
Arab Proverb

He who hunts two hares leaves one and loses the other.
Japanese Proverb

The town is new every day.
Estonian Proverb

When a camel is at the foot of a mountain then judge of his height.
Hindu Proverb

If you would be Pope, you must think of nothing else.
Spanish Proverb

Great consolation may grow out of the smallest saying.
Swiss-German Proverb

Better a handful of dry dates and content therewith than to own the Gate of Peacocks and be kicked in the eye by a broody camel.
Arab Proverb

After three days without reading, talk becomes flavorless.
Chinese Proverb

Three helping one another will do as much as six men singly.
Spanish Proverb

Great things are done more through courage than through wisdom.
German Proverb

Censure pardons the ravens but rebukes the doves.
Latin Proverb

A man should live if only to satisfy his curiosity.
Yiddish Proverb

He who cannot dance puts the blame on the floor.
Hindu Proverb

Men can bear all things except good days.
Dutch Proverb

The wolf will hire himself out very cheaply as a shepherd.
Russian Proverb

One sprinkles the most sugar where the tart is burnt.
Dutch Proverb

They will be hushed by a good deed who laugh at a wise speech.
French Proverb

That's a wise delay which makes the road safe.
Spanish Proverb

From someone else's cart you have to get off halfway.
Polish Proverb

He who likes cherries soon learns to climb.
German Proverb

If we all pulled in one direction, the world would keel over.
Yiddish Proverb

The shortest answer is doing.
English Proverb

A dream grants what one covets when awake.
German Proverb

The path of duty lies in what is near at hand, but men seek for it in what is remote.
Japanese Proverb

The work will teach you how to do it.
Estonian Proverb

He need not search his pockets for words.
Russian Proverb

He that can't endure the bad, will not live to see the good.
Yiddish Proverb

Envy eats nothing but its own heart.
German Proverb

Other people's eggs have two yolks.
Bulgarian Proverb

One does evil enough when one does nothing good.
German Proverb

Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.
Chinese Proverb

Too far east is west.
English Proverb

It is by believing in roses that one brings them to bloom.
French Proverb

You have to dig deep to bury your Daddy.
Gypsy Proverb

The father in praising his son extols himself.
Chinese Proverb

When God wishes a man well, He gives him insight into his faults.
Islamic Proverb

Wink at small faults, for you have great ones yourself.
Scottish Proverb

Faults are thick where love is thin.
Danish Proverb

Fear is a fine spur, so is rage.
Irish Proverb

He who fears something gives it power over him.
Moorish Proverb

The way one eats is the way one works.
Czech Proverb

When God gives hard bread He gives sharp teeth.
German Proverb

He who cannot cut the bread evenly cannot get on well with people.
Czech Proverb

There is no fool who has not his own kind of sense.
Irish Proverb

Nothing looks so like a man of sense as a fool who holds his tongue.
German Proverb

Luck sometimes visits a fool, but never sits down with him.
German Proverb

In every pardon there is love.
Welsh Proverb

The offender never forgives.
Russian Proverb

Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends.
Czech Proverb

Who seeks a faultless friend remains friendless.
Turkish Proverb

No one is so generous as he who has nothing to give.
French Proverb

To give quickly is a great virtue.
Hindu Proverb

He who gives to me teaches me to give.
Danish Proverb

God's a good man.
English Proverb

Better one good thing that is than two good things that were.
Irish Proverb

Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.
Estonian Proverb

What grows makes no noise.
German Proverb

Happiness is not a horse; you cannot harness it.
Russian Proverb

Nowhere are there more hiding places than in the heart.
German Proverb

Better be kind at home than burn incense in a far place.
Chinese Proverb

One joy scatters a hundred griefs.
Chinese Proverb

A kind word is like a Spring day.
Russian Proverb

Charity looks at the need and not at the cause.
German Proverb

He who is late may gnaw the bones.
Yugoslav Proverb

He who has the courage to laugh is almost as much master of the world as he who is ready to die.
Italian Proverb

He who is afraid of asking is ashamed of learning.
Danish Proverb

Life is an onion which one peels crying.
French Proverb

If you would understand men, study women.
French Proverb

What was hard to bear is sweet to remember.
Portuguese Proverb

Only he who does nothing makes a mistake.
French Proverb

Dawn does not come twice to awaken a man.
Arab Proverb

From the promise to the deed is a day's journey.
Bulgarian Proverb

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.
Chinese Proverb

A good rest is half the work.
Yugoslav Proverb

The world is a rose; smell it and pass it to your friends.
Persian Proverb

If you go only once around the room, you are wiser than he who sits still.
Estonian Proverb

Bygone troubles are good to tell.
Yiddish Proverb

To be loved is the best way of being useful.
French Proverb

Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, all must be tasted.
Chinese Proverb

Who is narrow of vision cannot be big of heart.
Chinese Proverb

The water that bears the ship is the same that engulfs it.
Chinese Proverb

He who can follow his own will is a king.
Irish Proverb

Everyone is wise until he speaks.
Irish Proverb

The world is a sure teacher, but it requires a fat fee.
Finnish Proverb

Being young is a fault which improves daily.
Swedish Proverb

Najamuddin Ghanghro
About the Author: Najamuddin Ghanghro Read More Articles by Najamuddin Ghanghro: 583 Articles with 733617 views I m now Alhamdulillah retired from Govt. Service after serving about 39 ys. Passing ,Alhamdulillah a tense less life. MAY ALLAH CONTINUE IT.AAMEEN

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