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The Proverbs are arranged by geographical/national locations.
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| Chinese Proverb
A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles.A bar of iron continually ground becomes a needle.A beautiful bird is the only kind we cage.A bird can roost but on one branch, a mouse can drink not more than its fill from a river.A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.A book holds a house of gold. A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. A book tightly shut is but a block of paper. A bride received into the home is like a horse that you have just bought; you break her in by constantly mounting her and continually beating her.A chicken is hatched even from such a well-sealed thing as an egg.A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every passerby leaves a mark. A clever person turns great troubles into little ones and little ones into none at all.A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood.A cloth is not woven from a single thread.A country where flowers are priced so as to make them a luxury has yet to learn the first principles of civilization.A crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind.A day of sorrow is longer than a month of joy.A diamond with a flaw is worth more than a pebble without imperfections. A dog in desperation will leap over a wall.A dog won't forsake his master because of poverty; a son never deserts his mother because of her homely appearance.A fall into a ditch makes you wiser.A flea on top of a bald head.A frog in a well-shaft seeing the sky.A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man made perfect without trials.A good dog does not block the road.A good neighbor is a found treasure.A hasty man drinks his tea with a fork.A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home. A jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good-for-nothing until he is educated.A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.A maker of idols is never an idolater.A man must despise himself before others will.A man must make himself despicable before he is despised by others.A man need never revenge himself; the body of his enemy will be brought to his own door.A man without a smiling face must not open shop.A man's conversation is the mirror of his thoughts.A nation's treasure: scholars.A person who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the man doing it.A person whose heart is not content is like a snake which tries to swallow an elephant.A rat who gnaws at a cat's tail invites destruction. A red-nosed man may be a teetotaler, but will find no one to believe it.A rumour goes in one ear and out many mouths.A single beam cannot support a great house.A single conversation across a table with a wise man is worth a month's study of books. A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.A single untried popular remedy often throws the scientific doctor into hysterics.A sly rabbit will have three openings to its den.A smile will gain you ten more years of life.A thorn defends the rose harming only those who would steal the blossom.A thousand cups of wine do not suffice when true friends meet, but half a sentence is too much when there is no meeting of minds.A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as a hollow mountain returns all sounds.A whitewashed crow soon shows black again.A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows public opinion.A young branch takes on all the bends that one gives it.A young doctor makes a full graveyard.Abroad we judge the dress; at home we judge the man.Add legs to the snake after you have finished drawing it.After three days without reading, talk becomes flavorless.All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws.All people are your relatives, therefore expect only trouble from them.All things at first appear difficult.Alms given openly will be rewarded in secret.Among ten matchmakers only nine will lie.An ambassador bears no blame.An ignorant doctor is no better than a murderer.An inch of time is an inch of gold, but you can't buy that inch of time with an inch of gold.An old friend met in a far country is like rain after drought.Avoid suspicion: when you're walking through your neighbor's melon patch, don't tie your shoe.Be in readiness for favorable winds.Be not a jack of all trades, but a master of one.Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.Be not disturbed at being misunderstood; be disturbed at not understanding.Be on a horse when you go in search of a better one.Be resolved and the thing is done.Beat your drum inside the house to spare the neighbors.Beat your gong and sell your candles.Because men do not like the cold, Heaven does not cause winter to cease.Before you beat a dog, find out who its master is.Begin with an error of an inch and end by being a thousand miles off the mark.Behind an able man there are always other able men. Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.Better be kind at home than burn incense in a far place.Better be too credulous than too skeptical.Better die ten years early than live ten years poor.Better do a kindness near home than go far to burn incense.Better go than send.Better the cottage where one is merry than the palace where one weeps.Better to do a kindness near home than go far away to burn incense.Better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness. Careless rat chewing on a cat's tail: beware lightning!Ceremony is the smoke of friendship.Cheap things are not good, good things are not cheap.Cheat the earth and the earth will cheat you.Clumsy birds have need of early flight.Conquerors are kings; the beaten are bandits.Consider the past and you shall know the future. Corner a dog in a dead-end street and it will turn and bite.Count not what is lost but what is left.Covet wealth, and want it; don't, and luck will grant it.Crows everywhere are equally black.Curse your wife at evening, sleep alone at night.Customers are jade; merchandise is grass.Dangerous enemies will meet again in narrow streets.Dead songbirds make a sad meal.Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.Deer-hunter, waste not your arrow on the hare.Despise learning and make everyone pay for your ignorance.Deviate an inch, lose a thousand miles.Dig a well before you are thirsty.Do not add legs to the snake after you have finished drawing it.Do not anxiously hope for that which is not yet come; do not vainly regret what is already past.Do not employ handsome servants.Do not have each foot on a different boat.Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet. Do not tear down the east wall to repair the west.Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead.Dogs do not dislike poor families.Don't build a new ship out of old wood.Don't consider your reputation and you may do anything you like.Don't open a shop unless you like to smile. Don't stand by the water and long for fish; go home and weave a net.Don't waste good iron for nails or good men for soldiers.Donkey's lips don't fit onto a horse's mouth.Dream different dreams while on the same bed.Easier to bend the body than the will.Easier to rule a nation than a son.Easy to believe in heaven's law, but so hard to keep.Easy to enroll a thousand soldiers. But, ah, one general!.Easy to know men's faces, not their hearts.Easy to run downhill, much puffing to run up.Empty the clear path to heaven, crowded the dark road to hell.Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think.Enough shovels of earth make a mountain, enough pails of water a river.Even a hare will bite when it is cornered.Every day cannot be a feast of lanterns.Everyone pushes a falling fence.Exaggeration is to paint a snake and add legs.Far waters cannot quench near fires.Fight a wolf with a flex stalk.Flowers leave a part of their fragrance in the hands that bestow them.Flowing water never goes bad; our door hubs never gather termites.For the sake of one good action, a hundred evil ones should be forgotten.From the lowly perspective of a dog's eyes, everyone looks short.Garden flowers larger, field flowers stronger.Get the coffin ready and watch the man mend.Girls marry to please parents, widows to please themselves.Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life. Going beyond is as bad as falling short.Gold has its price; learning is beyond price.Gold is tested by fire, man by gold.Good fortune may forebode bad luck, which may in turn disguise good fortune.Govern a family as you would cook a small fish--very gently.Govern yourself and you can govern the world.Grass fears the frost, frost fears the sun.Great blessings come from heaven; small blessings come from man.Great business is good; to sit and sip this glass is better.Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes.Habits are cobwebs at first, cables at last.Happiness is like a sunbeam, which the least shadow intercepts, while adversity is often as the rain of spring.Happiness is something to do, something to love, something to hope for. Happy people never count hours as they pass.Hatred corrodes the vessel in which it is stored.Have a mouth as sharp as a dagger, but a heart as soft as tofu.He comes with incense in one hand, in the other a spear.He has too many lice to feel an itch.He painted a tiger, but it turned out a dog.He that has no money might as well be buried in a rice tub with his mouth sewn up.He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.He who can predict winning numbers should not set off fire crackers.He who cannot agree with his enemies is controlled by them.He who carves the Buddha never worships him.He who could foresee affairs three days in advance would be rich for thousands of years.He who hurries cannot walk with dignity.He who rides on a tiger can never dismount.He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes.He who seeks revenge should remember to dig two graves.Hold back some goods for a thousand days and you will be sure to sell at a profit.Honey in his mouth, knives in his heart.How can you expect to find ivory in a dog's mouth?How can you put out a fire set on a cart-load of firewood with only a cup of water.I dreamed a thousand new paths. I woke and walked my old one.I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand. If a son is uneducated, his father is to blame.If an enemy is annoying you by playing well, consider adopting his strategy.If heaven made him, earth can find some use for him.If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.If what we see is doubtful, how can we believe what is spoken behind the back.If you always give, you will always have.If you are patient in a moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people. If you are standing upright, don't worry if your shadow is crooked.If you bow at all, bow low.If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.If you don't scale the mountain, you can't view the plain.If you get up one more time than you fall you will make it through.If you have never done anything evil, you should not be worrying about devils knocking at your door.If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a lily.If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.If you see in your wine the reflection of a person not in your range of vision, don't drink it.If you share a man's wealth, try to lessen his misfortune.If you suspect a man, don't employ him, and if you employ him, don't suspect him.If you want an audience, start a fight.Illness comes in by mouth; ills come out by it.In every family's cooking pot is one black spot.In his decision the judge with seven reasons gives only one in court.In reviling, it is not necessary to prepare a preliminary draft.In the broken nest there are no whole eggs.In the midst of great joy do not promise to give a man anything; in the midst of great anger do not answer a man's letter.In the presence of princes the cleverest jester is mute.Insects do not nest in a busy door-hinge.It is better to be entirely without a book than to believe it entirely.It is easier to know how to do than it is to do.It is harder to be poor without complaining than to be rich without boasting.It is not economical to go to bed early to save the candles if the result is twins.It is the beautiful bird that gets caged. It is the beautiful bird which gets caged.It takes little effort to watch a man carry a load.It's as difficult to be rich without bragging as it is to be poor without complaining.It's your own lantern; don't poke holes in the paper.Jade and men, both are sharpened by bitter tools.Judge not the horse by his saddle.Just as tall trees are known by their shadows, so are good men known by their enemies.Just scales and full measure injure no man.Keep your broken arm inside your sleeve.Kill a chicken before a monkey.Kill one to warn a hundred.Kill the chicken to frighten the monkey.Know thyself to know others, for heart beats like heart.Large demands on oneself and little demands on others keep resentment at bay.Laws control the lesser man; right conduct controls the greater one.Learn to handle a writing-brush and you'll never handle a begging-bowl.Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.Learning is a weightless treasure you always carry easy.Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.Learning is treasure no thief can touch.Learning is weightless, treasure you can always carry easily.Leave a bit of the tail to whisk off flies.Let him who does not know what war is go to war.Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends whom we choose.Listen to all, plucking a feather from every passing goose, but, follow no one absolutely.Long roads test the horse, long dealings the friend.Look for a thing until you find it and you'll not lose your labor.Looking for fish? Don't climb a tree.Losing comes of winning money.Love is blind, and greed insatiable.Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come.Make sure you leave some fat for the other side.Mallet strikes chisel; chisel splits wood.Man cannot stir one inch without the push of heaven's finger.Man concocts a million schemes; god knows but one.Man fools himself. He prays for a long life and he fears old age.Man has a thousand plans, heaven but one.Man is heaven and earth in miniature.Man must be sharpened on man, like knife on stone.Man must sit in chair with mouth open for very long time before roast duck fly in Mankind fears an evil man but heaven does not.Mankind scorns a virtuous man, but heaven does not.Many books do not use up words; many words do not use up thoughts.Married couples tell each other a thousand things without speech.Married couples who love each other tell each other a thousand things without talking.Medicine can only cure curable disease, and then not always.Men fated to be happy need not haste.Men in the game are blind to what men looking on see clearly.Men know not all their faults, oxen all their strength.Misfortune is not that which can be avoided, but that which cannot.Nature is better than a middling doctor.Nature, time and patience are the three great physicians.Never answer a letter while you are angry. Never answer a letter while you are angry.Never do anything standing that you can do sitting, or anything sitting that you can do lying down.Never trust a skinny cook.Never try to catch two frogs with one hand.Never write a letter while you are angry.No matter how stout one beam, it cannot support a house.No matter how tall the mountain, it cannot block out the sun.No medicines can cure the vulgar man.No melon-peddler cries: Bitter melons! No wine-dealer says: Sour wine!No wind, no waves.Nobody's family can hang out the sign, "Nothing the matter here." O eggs, never fight with stones!O man, you who do not live a hundred years, why fret a thousand minutes?Of a dead leopard we keep the skin, of man his reputation.Of all the thirty-six alternatives, running away is the best.Often one finds one's destiny just where one hides to avoid it.One joy shatters a hundred griefs.One monk shoulders water by himself; two can still share the labor among them. When it comes to three, they have to go thirsty.One who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever. Paper can't wrap up a fire.Parents who are afraid to put their foot down usually have children who step on their toes.Patience and the mulberry leaf become a silk robe.Patience is power; with time and patience the mulberry becomes silk.Peace and tranquility are a thousand gold pieces.Pick your inn before the dark; get on your road before the dawn.Plan your year in the spring, your day at dawn.Pleasures are shallow, sorrows deep.Politeness wins the confidence of princes.Practice no vice because it's trivial; neglect no virtue because it's so.Present to the eye, present to the mind.Priests return to the temple, merchants to the shop.Pure gold does not fear the smelter.Reform a gambler . . . cure leprosy.Reshape one's foot to try to fit into a new shoe.Rich men accumulate money; the poor accumulate years.Seeking fish? Don't dive in the pond; go home and get a net.Sending charcoal in the snow is better than adding flowers to a brocade.Silly toad: planning a meal of goose!Sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers fight.Slander cannot destroy an honest man: when the flood recedes the rock is there.Slow in word, swift in deed.Small ills are the fountains of most of our groans. Men trip not on mountains, they stumble on stones.Small men think they are small; great men never know they are great.So long as a man is angry he cannot be in the right.Some prefer carrots while others like cabbage.Sorrow is the child of too much joy.Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent, all must be tasted.Steal a bell with one's ears covered.Swiftest horse cannot overtake the word once spoken.Take a second look; it costs you nothing.Talk does not cook rice.Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand. Temptation wrings integrity even as the thumbscrew twists a man's fingers.Thatch your roof before rainy weather, dig your well before you become parched with thirst.The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.The best cure for drunkenness is whilst sober to observe a drunken person.The best memory is not so firm as faded ink.The best soldiers are not warlike.The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.The black dog gets the food; the white dog gets the blame.The broad-minded see the truth in different religions; the narrow-minded see only the differences.The careful foot can walk anywhere.The court official in one life has seven rebirths as a beggar.The day your horse dies and your money's lost, your relatives change to strangers.The day your horse dies and your money's lost, your relatives change to strangers.The delicacy of the feast is the learned guest.The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.The emperor is rich, but he cannot buy one extra year.The error of one moment becomes the sorrow of a whole life.The father in praising the son extols himself.The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns yourself more than him.The first half of the night, think of your own faults; the second half, the faults of others.The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.The happiness in your pocket, don't spend it all.The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.The mind is the emperor of the body.The net of heaven is large and wide, but it lets nothing through.The palest ink is better than the best memory. The path of duty lies in what is near at hand, but men seek for it in what is remote.The pen can kill a man; no knife is needed.The peony is beautiful, yet it is supported by a stalk.The pine stays green in winter, wisdom in hardship.The remedy for dirt is soap and water. The remedy for dying is living.The water that bears the ship is the same that engulfs it.The weasel comes to say "Happy New Year!" to the chickens.There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth.There are two perfectly good men, one dead, and the other unborn.Those who despise money will eventually sponge on their friends.Those who do not study are only cattle dressed up in men's clothes.Those who have free seats at a play hiss first.Those who remove mountains begin by carrying away small stones. Though you live near a forest, do not waste firewood.To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root. To talk much and arrive nowhere is the same as climbing a tree to catch a fish.To understand your parents' love bear your own children.To violate the law is the same crime in the emperor as in the subject.Transgressions should never be forgiven a third time.Two barrels of tears will not heal a bruise.Waiting for a rabbit to hit upon a tree and be killed in order to catch it.Want a thing long enough, and you don't.Water and words are easy to pour but impossible to recover.Water that has reached its level does not flow.We all like lamb; each has a different way of cooking it.We are not so much concerned if you are slow as when you come to a halt.We can study until old age and still not finish.We forget even incense in easy times; come hard times, we embrace the Buddha's feet.Whatever will satisfy hunger is good food. When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. When you want to test the depths of a stream, don't use both feet.When your horse in on the brink of a precipice, it is too late to pull the reins.Whenever the water rises, the boat will rise too.Who is not satisfied with himself will grow; who is not sure of his own correctness will learn many things.With money one may command devils; without it, one cannot even summon a man.With money one may command devils; without it, one cannot even summon a man.With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown. Yellow gold is plentiful compared to white-haired friends.You burn incense before the god, and then topple him.You can hardly make a friend in a year, but you can easily offend one in an hour.You can't catch a cub without going into the tiger's den.You can't clap with one hand only.You can't expect both ends of a sugar cane to be as sweet.You can't fill your belly painting pictures of bread.You cannot draw white cloth from a dying vat.You cannot hook trout? Try digging clams.You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair. |
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