Motivational Quotes

Proverbs

Maxims and aphorisms, let us remember that wisdom is the true salt of literature, and the books that are most nourishing are richly stored with it, and that is the main object to seek in reading books.

- Morely, John

Best Quotes about Proverbs

Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.

Malayan Proverb

Make sure to be in with your equals if you're going to fall out with your superiors.

Jewish Proverb

A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.

Russell, John

Keep your broken arm inside your sleeve.

Chinese Proverb

They are like the clue in the labyrinth, or the compass in the night.

Joubert, Joseph

How many of us have been attracted to reason; first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism.

Bulwer-Lytton, Edward G.

There is often more spiritual force in a proverb than in whole philosophical systems.

Carlyle, Thomas

For proverbs are the pith, the proprieties, the proofs, the purities, the elegancies, as the commonest so the commendablest phrases of a language. To use them is a grace, to understand them a good.

Florio, John

A smiling face is half the meal.

Latvian Proverb

10.

I can't make head or tail of Life. Love is a fine thing, Art is a fine thing, Nature is a fine thing; but the average human mind and spirit are confusing beyond measure. Sometimes I think that all our learning is the little learning of the maxim. To laugh at a Roman awe-stricken in a sacred grove is to laugh at something today.

Stevens, Wallace

11.

Seize opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind.

Bulgarian Proverb

12.

No people require maxims so much as the American. The reason is obvious: the country is so vast, the people always going somewhere, from Oregon apple valley to boreal New England, that we do not know whether to be temperate orchards or sterile climate.

Dahlberg, Edward

13.

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

Japanese Proverb

14.

A proverb is good sense brought to a point.

Morley, John

15.

Although none of the rules for becoming more alive is valid, it is healthy to keep on formulating them.

Sontag, Susan

16.

Complain to one who can help you.

Yugoslav Proverb

17.

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.

Latin Proverb

18.

Don't make use of another's mouth unless it has been lent to you.

Belgian Proverb

19.

I believe there's no proverb but what is true; they are all so many sentences and maxims drawn from experience, the universal mother of sciences.

Cervantes, Miguel De

20.

First secure an independent income, then practice virtue.

Greek Proverb

21.

Examine what is said, not him who speaks.

Arab Proverb

22.

Don't fall before you're pushed.

English Proverb

23.

Raise your sail one foot and you get ten feet of wind.

Chinese Proverb

24.

Do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet.

Chinese Proverb

25.

Don't let your sorrow come higher than your knees.

Swedish Proverb

26.

Praise youth and it will prosper.

Irish Proverb

27.

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.

Chinese Proverb

28.

The reverse side also has a reverse side.

Japanese Proverb

29.

Make your bargain before beginning to plow.

Arab Proverb

30.

Keep five yards from a carriage, ten yards from a horse, and a hundred yards from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured.

Indian Proverb

31.

Ask about your neighbors, then buy the house.

Jewish Proverb

32.

Speak the truth, but leave immediately after.

Slovenian Proverb

33.

Do not throw the arrow which will return against you.

Kurdish Proverb

34.

One kind word can warm three winter months.

Japanese proverb

35.

If you bow at all, bow low.

Chinese Proverb

36.

If you believe everything you read, better not read.

Japanese Proverb

37.

Go often to the house of thy friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path.

Scandinavian Proverb

38.

If you want to be respected, you must respect yourself.

Spanish Proverb

39.

If you refuse to be made straight when you are green, you will not be made straight when you are dry.

African Proverb

40.

When you have given nothing, ask for nothing.

Albanian Proverb

41.

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

German Proverb

42.

Don't you go believing in sayings, Picotee: they are all made by men, for their own advantages. Women who use public proverbs as a guide through events are those who have not ingenuity enough to make private ones as each event occurs.

Hardy, Thomas

43.

A collections of anecdotes and maxims is the greatest of treasures for the man of the world, for he knows how to intersperse conversation with the former in fit places, and to recollect the latter on proper occasions.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

44.

You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.

Irish Proverb

45.

Never rely on the glory of the morning nor the smiles of your mother-in-law.

Japanese Proverb

46.

Never give a child a sword.

Latin Proverb

47.

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can't find.