Proverbs Quotations | Page 3

At table keep a short hand; in company keep a short tongue.

A trout in the pot is better than a salmon in the sea.

A tribulation is better than a hundred warnings.

A tree not taller than an ant cannot shade you. - Kanuri proverb, Nigeria

Dios tarda pero no olvida -- God delays but doesn't forget.

Do what your teacher says but not what he does.

Do unto others as you would they should do unto you.

Don't halloo till you are out of the wood.

Don't throw out your dirty water until you get in fresh.

Don't drive a Binya into the woods if he has found his way to your house.

Drink nothing with out seeing it; sign nothing without reading it.

Even a friend can not rescue one from old age. - Kalenjin (Kenya)

Even a clock that is not going is right twice a day.

First secure an independent income, then practice virtue.

Fashion is a tyrant from which there is no deliverance; all must conform to its whimsical.

Fear only two: God, and the man who has no fear of God.

Fear an ignorant man more than a lion

The tongue always returns to the sore tooth.

The worth of a thing is what it will bring.

The wise person has long ears and a short tongue.

The rich never have to seek out their relatives.

The rich man has his ice in the summer and the poor man gets his in the winter.

The sage speaks of what he sees; the fool, of what he hears.

These can never be true friends: Hope, dice, a prostitute, a robber, a cheat, a goldsmith, a monkey, a doctor, a distiller.

The secret of life is not to do what you like, but to like what you do.

The sun loses nothing by shining into a puddle.

Tell me who's your friend and I'll tell you who you are.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Pray to God but continue to row to the shore.

Pray that you will never have to bear all that you are able to endure.

Poverty is not a shame, but the being ashamed of it is.

Poverty is a wonderful thing. It sticks to a man after all his friends have forsaken him.

Put your trust in God and keep your powder dry.

Put a beggar on horseback and he'll go on a gallop.

Providence is always on the side of the big battalions.

Proverbs are mental gems gathered in the diamond districts of the mind

Pride is the mask of one's own faults.

People count the faults of those who keep them waiting.

Of everything else the newest; of friends, the oldest.

Often a cow does not take after its breed.

The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.

A fool may give a wise man counsel.

A fool at forty is a fool indeed.

A door must be either shut or open.

A donkey knows no gratitude. - (Knappert, p. 138, Swahili)

A dog that intends to bite does not bear its teeth.

A friend in need is a friend in deed.

A cup of coffee commits one to forty years of friendship.

Study from new books but from old teachers

Spare at the spigot, and let out the bung-hole.

One hand for oneself and one for the ship.

One good turn deserves another. John Heywood The Proverbs of John Heywood (1546)

One good turn deserves another. John Heywood The Proverbs of John Heywood (1546)

One chops the wood, the other does the grunting.

An empty purse and a new house make a man wise, but too late.

An old man loved is winter with flowers.

A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse.

A reed before the wind lives on, while mighty oaks do fall.

A prophet is not without honour save in his own country.

A pound is sixteen ounces wherever you go.

An illness comes by the pound and goes away by the ounce.

A net will catch more than a pole.

A scholars ink lasts longer than a martyrs blood.

As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far place.

A twig is bent while it is green.

A woman and a ship ever want mending.

A wise man remembers his friends at all times; a fool, only when he has need of them.

A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will.

A wise fox will never rob his neighbours hen roost.

A young man married is a young man marred.

A thread will tie an honest man better than a chain a rogue.

A thousand friends are too few; one enemy is one too many.

A sow may whistle, though it has an ill mouth for it.

A lion sleeps in the heart of every brave man.

All a Jew has to do is recite a few proverbs or anecdotes to consider himself an expert on 'Jewishness.'

A hyena cannot smell its own stench. - Kalenjin (Kenya)

The mob has many heads but no brains.

The miser and the open-handed spend the same in the long run.

You suffer from smoke produced by the firewood you fetched yourself. Luhya, Kenya

You never miss the water till the well runs dry.

Young men may die, but old men must die.

Young folks think old folks to be fools, but old folks know young folks to be fools.

They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.

A malignant sore throat is a danger, a malignant throat not sore is worse.

A man is as wise as his head, not his years.

A man is as old as he feels, and a woman as old as she looks.

A man should go on living -- if only to satisfy his curiosity.

A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for his client.

A man's wealth may be superior to him. Cameroon

The young can't teach traditions to the old. - Yoruba proverb

At a round table there is no dispute about place.

A stranger does not skin a sheep that is paid as a fine at a chief's court. - Cape Coast, Ghana

A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly.

All of us are crazy in one way or another.

A buckle is a great addition to an old shoe.

A boys best friend is his mother and there's no spancel stronger than her apron string.

The more you get the more you want.

A country can be judged by the quality of its proverbs.

It's astonishing how important a man becomes when he dies.

Its a bad hen that won't scratch herself.