Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
African proverb
Quotations by:
~Proverbs and Sayings
Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
African proverb
If you do not have patience, you cannot make beer.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
African proverb
If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
African proverb
The quickest way to do many things is to do one thing at a time.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
American proverb (New England)
No one was ever ruined by taking a profit.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
American proverb (Wall Street)
Everyone lives downstream from someone else.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
American saying
Do not stand in a place of danger trusting in miracles.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Arab proverb
When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Arab proverb
Examine what is said, not him who speaks.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Arab proverb
All sunshine makes a desert.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Arab proverb
The hasty and the slow meet at the ferry.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Arab proverb
The worst things:
To try to sleep and sleep not.
To wait for one who comes not.
To try to please and please not.Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Arab proverb
Death is a black camel, which kneels at the gates of all.
[الموت جمل أسود يركع أمام جميع البواب]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Arabic saying
Also identified as a Turkish saying.
Popularized in the West in the 19th Century by Algerian religious and military leader Abdelkader ibn Muhieddine (Abdelkader El Djazairi).
It received later used in the eponymous Charlie Chan novel by Earl Derr Biggers, The Black Camel, ch. 4 (1929), where it is identified as an "old Eastern saying": "Death is the black camel that kneels unbid at every gate."
It was also used in the 1931 movie of the same name: "Death is a black camel that kneels unbidden at every gate."
Further variants:
- "Death is a black camel that kneels before every man's door."
- "Death is a black camel which kneels at every man's gate."
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Cherokee proverb
The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
There is many a good man to be found under a shabby hat.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Quoted in W. C. Wilson, ed., The Teacher's Visitor (1846).
Ask a question and you’re a fool for three minutes; do not ask a question and you’re a fool for the rest of your life.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
With virtue you cannot be entirely poor. Without it you cannot be really rich.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone’s letter.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Happiness is someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Also attributed to T. Bodett, S. Freud, A. Chalmers.
After three days without reading, talk becomes flavorless.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Before you set out for revenge, be sure to dig two graves.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Dig the well before you are thirsty.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Lending to a spendthrift is like pelting a trespassing dog with meat dumplings.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
We cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over our heads, but we can refuse to let them build their nests in our hair.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
When we talk of tomorrow, the gods laugh.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
When you want to test the depths of a stream, don’t use both feet.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Talk doesn’t cook rice.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
He who carves the Buddha never worships him.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
One generation plants the trees, and another gets the shade.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
When a tiger dies, it leaves its skin behind. When a person dies, he leaves his name behind.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Better the cottage where one is merry than the palace where one weeps.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
First recorded by Jean Paul [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter] (1763-1825), Levana, sec. 8 (1807): "Nicht das Geschrei, sagt ein chinesischer Autor, sondern der Ausflug einer wilden Ente treibt die Heerde zur Folge und zum Nachfliegen." (See H. A., A Book of Thoughts (1865))
Talk doesn’t cook rice.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Also attributed to the Japanese.
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years’ study of books.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese proverb
Given in translation in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hyperion, ch. 7 (1839).
If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.
Before trying to become a Buddha, first be kind to other people.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Chinese saying
When an ox enters a palace, it doesn’t become a king but the palace turns into a barn.
[Öküz saraya çıkınca kral olmaz. Ama saray ahır olur.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Circassian proverb
This "Turkish" (properly Circassian or Adyghe) proverb (source) can be found with a variety of forms and choice of livestock. It was famously used by journalist Sedef Kabaş in early 2022:A bull does not become king just by entering the palace, but the palace becomes a barn.
Kabas was jailed for supposedly insulting Turkish President Erdoğan with the reference.
Based on Kabas' usage, it was reworked on 23 January 2022 by Elizabeth Bangs, a British academic consultant, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in mind, and posted on Twitter into a more viral form:When a clown moves into a palace he does not become a king. The palace becomes a circus.
The clown version is now widely misattributed as a Turkish proverb.
More notes:
Riches are often abused but seldom refused.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Danish proverb
Better ask twice than lose your way once.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Danish Proverb
Life is not holding a good hand; life is playing a poor hand well.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Danish proverb
Everyone must row with the oars he has.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Dutch proverb
He who is outside the door has already a good part of his journey behind him.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Dutch proverb
The fear of tomorrow comes one day too soon.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Dutch proverb
Who chatters to you will chatter about you.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Egyptian saying
He that seeks trouble never misses.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English proverb
First collected in George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs (1640).
Shared joyse are doubled; shared sorrows are halved.
If a donkey bray at you, don’t bray at him.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English proverb
The noisiest streams are the shallowest.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English proverb
Everyone must row with the oars he has.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English proverb
Absence and a friendly neighbor washes away love.
A man does as he is when he can do what he wants.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English proverb
If you make money your god, it will plague you like the devil.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English proverb
Sometimes "'twill plague you".
An anonymous proverb, recorded in Thomas Fielding, ed., Select Proverbs of All Nations (1824). Thomas Fielding was the pseudonym of John Wade (1788-1875), a British journalist and author.
Though Fielding was only a compiler of proverbs and aphorisms, the quotation then shows up in a variety of collections later in the 19th Century actually cited to "Fielding," e.g., H. Southgate, ed., Many Thoughts of Many Minds (1862); John Camden Hotten, ed. The Golden Treasury of Thought (1873); Edward Parsons Day, ed., Day's Collacon: an Encyclopaedia of Prose Quotations (1884).
In relatively short order, this "Fielding" then became conflated with the more famous English writer Henry Fielding (1707-1754), to whom this quotation is often credited.
Who is so deaf or so blind as he
That wilfully will neither hear nor see?Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English proverb (16th Century)
Cited in J. Heywood, Dialogue of Proverbs (1546)
Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English proverb (18th Century)
Collected in Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732).
Education begins a gentleman, conversation completes him.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English proverb (18th Century)
Collected in Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia (1732).
Thought when sober, said when drunk.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English saying
Great quarrels often arise from small occasions but never from small causes.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English saying
Fools and obstinate men make lawyers rich.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
English saying
Adversity makes men; prosperity makes monsters.
[L’adversité fait l’homme, et le bonheur les monstres.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French proverb
Variants:Often attributed to Victor Hugo, including from sources going back to the 19th Century (Ballou (1899)). I have not been able to find an actual citation or primary source.
- "Adversity makes men, but prosperity makes monsters."
- "Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters."
- "Prosperity makes monsters, but adversity makes men."
It is also widely noted as an anonymous or proverbial saying (e.g., 1809, 1818).
It may well be a French proverb that was incorrectly attributed to Hugo (who wrote quite a bit on the subjects of adversity and prosperity) in order to have a name to hang off of it.
Those who do not do politics will be done in by politics.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French proverb
He who knows nothing doubts nothing.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French proverb
There should be a reason for speech but not for silence.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French proverb
One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French proverb
He who can lick can bite.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French proverb
Everything passes, everything breaks, everything palls, everything gets replaced.
[Tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse, et tout se remplace.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French proverb
Sometimes given without the final clause. The second and third clauses are sometimes reversed.
The dog may be wonderful prose, but only the cat is poetry.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French proverb
Adversity makes men; prosperity makes monsters.
[L’adversité fait l’homme, et le bonheur les monstres.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French proverb
Variants:Often attributed to Victor Hugo, including from sources going back to the 19th Century (Ballou (1899)). I have not been able to find an actual citation or primary source.
- "Adversity makes men, but prosperity makes monsters."
- "Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters."
- "Prosperity makes monsters, but adversity makes men."
It is also widely noted as an anonymous or proverbial saying (e.g., 1809, 1818).
It may well be a French proverb that was incorrectly attributed to Hugo (who wrote quite a bit on the subjects of adversity and prosperity) in order to have a name to hang off of it.
People count up the faults of those who keep them waiting.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French saying
Money is a good servant but a bad master.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
French saying
One does evil enough when one does nothing good.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
German proverb
Poor men’s reasons are not heard.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
German proverb
He who holds the ladder is as guilty as the thief.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
German proverb
Mules are always boasting that their ancestors are horses.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
German Proverb
When a fox preaches, look to your goose.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
German saying
God gave us teeth to hold back our tongue.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Greek proverb
Ask the dweller, not the builder.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Greek saying
A civilization flourishes when people plant trees under whose shade they will never sit.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Greek saying
There is no room for God in him who is full of himself.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Hasidic saying
If the elephants visit your farm you do not worry about the monkeys.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Hausa proverb
Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Hebrew proverb
There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Hindu proverb
Every man likes the smell of his own farts.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Icelandic proverb
May you live to be a hundred years,
With one extra year to repent.Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Irish proverb
A goose never voted for an early Christmas.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Irish saying
The ink of a scholar is just as holy as the blood of a martyr.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Islamic proverb
Many complain of their looks, but none of their brains.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Italian proverb
Also noted as a Jewish or Yiddish proverb.
This is also often cited to Sally Koslow, Little Pink Slips, ch. 5 (2007); it appears there as ""Many complain of their looks, few of their brains," but is described as an unoriginal needlepoint on a pillow cover.
See also La Rochefoucauld for a similar construction.
After the game, the King and the Pawn go into the same box.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Italian proverb
Phrased as such (and noted as an Italian proverb) in H. L. Mencken, A New Dictionary of Quotations (1942). The sentiment can be found in literature back to the 17th Century. See also Omar Khayyám.
More discussion: When the Chess Game Is Over, the King and the Pawn Go Back in the Same Box – Quote Investigator.
From listening comes wisdom; from speaking, repentance.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Italian saying
We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese proverb
He who smiles rather than rages is always the stronger.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese proverb
If you believe everything you read, better not read.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese proverb
The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese proverb
The reverse side has also its reverse side.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese proverb
Fall seven times, stand up eight.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese proverb
To teach is to learn.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese proverb
When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese proverb
When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese proverb
One good deed is better than three days of fasting at a shrine.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese saying
Hate not the people, but the crime.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Japanese saying
When a rogue kisses you, count your teeth.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Jewish proverb
If the rich could hire other people to die for them, the poor would make a wonderful living.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Jewish proverb
De gustibus non disputandum.
[There’s no accounting for taste.]Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Latin maxim
Learn to obey before you command.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Latin proverb
If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Latin proverb
All clouds are not rain clouds.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Latin Proverb
Cave ab homine unius libri.
[Beware of anyone who has just one book.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Latin proverb
Sometimes attributed to Thomas Aquinas. See also George Herbert.
The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling.
[Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe cadendo.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Latin proverb
Alt. trans.:
- "The rain dints the hard stone, not by violence, but by oft-falling drops."
- "The drop of rain maketh a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by oft falling."
- "The drop hollows out the stone not by strength, but by constant falling."
- "The drop hollows the stone, not with force but by falling often."
- "Dripping water hollows out the stone not by force, but by continually falling."
Some famous usages include Lucretius, De rerum natura, Book 6, l. 312: "The ring on the finger is tapered by being worn, the dripping water hollows out the stone, the plow is subtly worn by the impact of the fields." [anulus in digito subter tenuatur habendo, stilicidi casus lapidem cavat, uncus aratri, ferreus occulte decrescit vomer in arvis]
Similarly Ovid, Ex Ponte, 4.10.5: "The drop hollows out the stone, the ring is worn by use, and the curved ploughshare is rubbed away by the pressure of the earth." [Gutta cavat lapidem, consumitur annulus usu, et teritur pressa vomer aduncus humo.]
Made famous in English by Hugh Latimer, "Seventh Sermon before Edward VI" (1549). Similarly, John Lyly, Euphues (1580): "The soft droppes of rain perce the hard marble; many strokes overthrow the tallest oaks."
Gentle in manner, strong in deed.
[Suaviter in modo, fortirer in re.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Latin proverb
Pres. Dwight Eisenhower kept a small wooden sign with this proverb on his desk at the White House.
Mors sceptra ligonibus æquat.
[Death equalizes the scepter and the spade.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Latin proverb
Widely used over the centuries in sermons, religious writings, and inscriptions regarding death and the vanity of worldly rank and honors. Citations I found go back at least to the 16th Century, with use peaking, then tailing off in the 19th Century.
While attributed in various places, without citation, to Lucan, Lucian, or Horace, it does not appear to be actually from any of those writers.
Alternate translations / renderings:Death maketh sceptres and mattocks equal, and as soon arresteth he the prince that carrieth the sceptre, as the poor man that diggeth with the mattock.
[tr. Grindal (1564)]Scepter and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
[tr. Shirley (1654)]Death mingles scepters with spades.
[tr. Henry (1806)]Death is the head of the leveling party.
[tr. Cawdry (1869)]In death there is no difference betwixt the king and the beggar.
[tr. Cawdry (1869)]In death there is no difference made
Between the sceptre and the spade.
[Inverness tombstone of Samuel Urquhart (1700); see Swift, below]In Death, no Difference is made,
Betweene the Sceptre, and the Spade.
[Inverness tombstone of John Cutherbert of Drakes (1711)]Death makes sceptres and hoes equal.
[tr. Aavitsland (2012)]Death makes scepters equal with hoes.
[tr. Stone (2013)]
Variants:Mors dominos servis et sceptra ligonibus æquat,
Dissimiles simili condicione trahens.
[Death comes alike to monarch, lord, and slave,
And levels all distinctions in the grave.]
[Hall (1909), from Colman (c. 1633)]Ah! who, in our degenerate days,
As nature prompts, his offering pays?
Here nature never difference made
Between the sceptre and the spade.
[Swift (1730), regarding the goddess of the sewer, Cloacina]
Lower your voice and strengthen your argument.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Lebanese proverb
Nothing is so full of victory as patience.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Madagascan proverb
Don’t think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Malayan proverb
One can pay back a loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Malayan proverb
Fortune is like a wall that falls on those who lean on it.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Mexican proverb
Speak the truth, but keep one foot in the stirrup.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Mongol proverb
Always assume your guest is tired, cold and hungry, and act accordingly.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Navajo proverb
It ain’t so much a matter of not knowing as it is knowing so much that ain’t so.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Ozark proverb
Two things indicate weakness — to be silent when it is proper to speak, and to speak when it is proper to be silent.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Persian proverb
You have a lifetime to work, but children are only young once.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Polish proverb
Not my circus, not my monkey.
[Nie moj cyrk, nie moje malpy.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Polish saying
Idiomatic for "Not my problem."
The road leading to a goal does not separate you from your destination; it is essentially a part of it.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Romany proverb
Pray to God, but keep rowing to shore.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Russian proverb
Rich in rubles, rich in sorrows; poor in rubles, richer in sorrows.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Russian proverb
Dwell on the past and you lose an eye. Forget the past and you’ll lose both eyes.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Russian Saying
When money speaks, truth is silent.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Russian saying
Fear the judge, not the law.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Russian saying
The angry man will defeat himself in battle as well as in life.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Samurai saying
Never let your feet run faster than your shoes.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Scottish proverb
Confessed faults are half mended.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Scottish proverb
Many irons on the Fire, some must cool.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Scottish Proverb
(Source)
In James Kelly, A Complete Collection of Scottish Proverbs, M.93 (1721)
Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Scottish proverb
If you wish to know what a man is, place him in authority.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Serbian proverb
Good deeds are the best prayer.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Serbian proverb
A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Spanish proverb
If I die, I forgive you; If I live, we shall see.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Spanish proverb
One drink is just right; two is too many; three are too few.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Spanish proverb
If the sky falls, hold up your hands.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Spanish proverb
Every cask smells of the wine it contains.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Spanish proverb
Tell me what you brag about and I’ll tell you what you lack.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Spanish proverb
Little by little, one travels far.
[Poco a poco se anda lejos.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Spanish Proverb
Literally, "Little by little, one goes a long way." Sometimes misattributed to J. R. R. Tolkien.
If a man points at the moon, an idiot will look at the finger.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Sufi proverb
God gives every bird his worm, but He does not throw it into the nest.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Swedish proverb
Man is harder than iron, stronger than stone and more fragile than a rose.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Turkish proverb
No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Turkish proverb
No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Turkish proverb
The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe because its handle was made of wood and they thought it was one of the them.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Turkish Proverb
While this particular phrasing is widely labeled online as a Turkish proverb, it is a fairly recent reformulation of a Talmudic or Turkish set of proverbs, and is not credited solely to the Turks.
The Babylonian Talmud (6th Century AD) includes a passage (Sanhedrin, Perek 4, 39B), indicating it was a common proverb:As this is as people say: From and within the forest comes the ax to it, as the handle for the ax that chops the tree is from the forest itself.
As well as:This is as people say: From and within the forest comes the ax to it, as King David was a descendant of Ruth the Moabite.
This phrase was brought into English in Rev. J. Ray's A Collection of English Proverbs (1678) as a "Hebrew Adage":The axe goes to the wood, from whence it borrowed its helve: [the saying] is used against those who are injurious to those from whom they are derived, or from whom they have received their power.
Ray's work continued in reprint for over a century, well-establishing the phrase in English.
In a similar vein, Metin Yurtbaşı's Dictionary of Turkish Proverbs (1993) includes two such phrases, indexed under "Ingratitude". It attributes these back to Ebüzziya Tevfik, Durüb-ı, Emsâl-i Osmaniyye [Ottoman Proverbs] (1885). First:They struck at the tree with an ax; and the tree said: “The handle is made from my body.”
[Ağaca balta vurmuşlar, “Sapı bedenimden” demiş.]
Second:An ax went into the woods and its handle was of itself.
[Ormana (bir) balta girmiş sapı yine kendisinden (imiş).]
There are a variety of later uses, in books and then in social media, that further evolved the concept into the quotation that leads this entry, which was first tweeted by @mabarsayaaaaa (2018-02-24). In this more political form, it and further variants have also been credited as an African (Yoruba) proverb (often by African tweeters).
For more discussion of the background and origin of this quotation, see:
You can’t keep trouble from coming, but you don’t have to give it a chair to sit in.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Vermont proverb
A stupid man stays awake all night pondering his problems; he’s all worn out when morning comes, and whatever was, still is.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Viking proverb
God gives nothing to those who keep their arms crossed.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
West African proverb
It’s no disgrace to be poor, but it’s no honor, either.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish proverb
Don’t approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish proverb
If hard work were so wonderful, the rich would keep it all for themselves.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish proverb
If the rich could hire others to die for them, the poor could make a nice living.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish proverb
Charm is more than beauty.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish proverb
If I try to be like him, who will be like me?
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish proverb
When a rogue kisses you, count your teeth.
[Ven a ganef kusht, darf men zikh di tseyn ibertseyln.]
[װען אַ גנבֿ קושט, דאַרף מען זיך די צײן איבערצײלן.]
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish proverb
(Source)
Alt. trans.: "When a thief kisses you, count your teeth."
Better a false “Good morning” than a sincere “Go to Hell.”
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish proverb
A full purse is not as good as an empty one is bad.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish saying
With money in your pocket, you are wise and handsome, and you sing well too.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Yiddish saying
Tanzan and Ekido were traveling together down a muddy road. They came upon a lovely girl in a silk kimono, unable to cross at an intersection. “Come on, girl,” said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.
Ekido did not speak until that night. Then he could no longer restrain himself. “We monks don’t go near females,” he said, “especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?”
“I left the girl there,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her?”Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen koan
A man asked Hakuin, a Zen master, “What happens after we die?”
The master replied, “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean? You’re a Zen master, aren’t you?”
“I am,” came the reply, “but not a dead one.”Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen koan
MONK: I have just entered the monastery; please give me some guidance.
MASTER: Have you eaten your rice gruel?
MONK: Yes, I’ve eaten.
MASTER: Then go wash your bowl.Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen koan
When a rebel army took over a Korean town, all fled the Zen temple except the abbot. The rebel general burst into the temple, and was incensed to find that the master refused to greet him, let alone receive him as a conqueror.
“Don’t you know,” shouted the general, “that you are looking at one who can run you through without batting an eye?”
“And you,” said the abbot, “are looking at one who can be run through without batting an eye.”
The general’s scowl turned into a smile. He bowed low and left the temple.Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen Koan
In Lucien Stryk, Takashi Ikemoto, and Taigan Takayama, Zen Poems of China and Japan: The Crane's Bill (1973)
A soldier came to Hakuin and asked “Is there really a paradise and a hell?”
“Who are you?” inquired Hakuin. “I am a samurai,” the warrior replied.
“You, a samurai!” exclaimed Hakuin. “What kind of ruler would have you as his guard? Your face looks like that of a beggar!”
The soldier became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued. “So you have a sword! Your weapon is probably as dull as your head!”
As the soldier drew his sword Hakuin remarked “Here open the gates of hell!”
At these words, the samurai, perceiving the discipline of the master, sheathed his sword and bowed.
“Here open the gates of paradise,” said Hakuin.Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen koan
MASTER: As long as there is “I and thou,” there is no seeing Tao.
MONK: When there is neither “I” nor “thou” is it seen?
MASTER: When there is neither “I” nor “thou,” who is here to see it?Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen mondo
Miso with the smell of miso is not good miso.
Enlightenment with the smell of enlightenment is not real enlightenment.Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen proverb
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen proverb
If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, try it for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually, one discovers that it is not boring but very interesting.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen proverb
Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zen saying
If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing.
Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Zimbabwe proverb