Proverbs from Many Cultures: My Favorites

I like proverbs because they're simple sentences which express a truth based upon common sense. They say a lot using few words.

I have compiled a list of my favorite proverbs and have arranged them in groups, primarily by the language in which it is thought the proverb was first written or spoken.

Please note that some proverbs are so popular, they are claimed by more than source as being their own. Also, it is possible a proverb could have originated independently in more than one country.

• It is better to be safe than sorry.
• The love of money is the root of all evil.
• Practice makes perfect.

• Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.

• Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.

• Fish & Visitors stink in 3 days.

• God helps them that help themselves.

• A Lie stands on 1 leg, Truth on 2.

• Where there’s Marriage without Love, there will be Love without Marriage.

• Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.

• As man sows, so shall he reap.
• Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is counted wise.
• It is more blessed to give than to receive.
• Seek and ye shall find.
• Sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind.
• Stupid people always think they are right. Wise people listen to advice.
• Wisdom is more precious than rubies.

• Measure twice, cut once.

• I hear and I forget, I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
• Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different outcome.
• Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
• The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
• When setting out on an errand of revenge, first dig TWO graves.
• Women hold up half the sky.

• A lie travels half way around the world while the truth is putting its boots on. [Mark Twain]
• Be nice to your children — they'll be choosing the old folks' home.
• Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
• Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and boring.
• Experience is something you get just after you need it.
• Experience is the worst teacher, because it gives the test before it teaches the lesson.
• He who laughs last thinks slowest!
• I can resist everything except temptation.
• If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before.
• If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
• It is better to enter the mouth of a tiger than a lawyer's office. [Chinese proverb]
• Junk is something you’ve kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
• No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
• There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
• Yes — forgive your enemies whenever you can. But always remember their names.
• Youth wastes away. But immaturity often lasts a lifetime.

• Envy eats nothing but its own heart.
• God gives the nuts, but he doesn't crack them.
• He who undertakes to be his own teacher has a fool for a pupil.
• The wise person has long ears and a short tongue.
• To advise is easier than to help.
• To change and change for the better are two different things.
• We get old too soon, and too late smart.
• Who has never tasted what is bitter does not know what is sweet.

• A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.
• Half a loaf is better than no bread.
• Necessity is the mother of invention.
• Patience is a virtue that causes no shame.
• Possession is nine-tenths of the law.
• What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
• You'll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.

• Lie down with dogs and wake up with fleas.
• Seize the day. (Carpe diem) [Roman poet Horace]

• Still waters run deep.

• Doveryai, no proveryai (Trust, but verify.)

• All of us are crazy in one way or another.
• God gives burdens, also shoulders.
• If a man is destined to drown, he will drown even in a spoonful of water.
• If you don’t want to do something, one excuse is as good as another.

• If you want some work done, give it to a busy man.
• A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client.

Proverbs can offer a distilled bit of wisdom, but they sometimes can be hard to apply — they can even be contradictory as with "Look before you leap." and "He who hesitates is lost."

Please post a comment and let everyone know.