Motivational Quotes

Proverbs

Examine what is said, not him who speaks.

- Arab Proverb

Best Quotes about Proverbs

The big thieves hang the little ones.

Czech Proverb

Examine what is said, not him who speaks.

Arab Proverb

Wait until it is night before saying that it has been a fine day.

French Proverb

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

Chinese Proverb

Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.

Swedish Proverb

Speak the truth, but leave immediately after.

Slovenian Proverb

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

Chinese Proverb

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

Jewish Proverb

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.

10.

Do not employ handsome servants.

Chinese Proverb

11.

Ask about your neighbors, then buy the house.

Jewish Proverb

12.

A smiling face is half the meal.

Latvian Proverb

13.

A proverb is not a proverb to you until life has illustrated it.

Keats, John

14.

Until a friend or relative has applied a particular proverb to your own life, or until you've watched him apply the proverb to his own life, it has no power to sway you.

Baker, Nicholson

15.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Chinese Proverb

16.

Make your bargain before beginning to plow.

Arab Proverb

17.

First secure an independent income, then practice virtue.

Greek Proverb

18.

If you wish your merit to be known, acknowledge that of other people.

Oriental Proverb

19.

Complain to one who can help you.

Yugoslav Proverb

20.

The palest ink is better than the best memory.

Chinese Proverb

21.

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

German Proverb

22.

If you bow at all, bow low.

Chinese Proverb

23.

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

Spanish Proverb

24.

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

Joubert, Joseph

25.

When you have given nothing, ask for nothing.

Albanian Proverb

26.

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

Scandinavian Proverb

27.

A proverb is much matter distilled into few words.

Fuller, R. Buckminster

28.

Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.

Huxley, Aldous

29.

Don't be sweet, lest you be eaten up; don't be bitter, lest you be spewed out.

Jewish Proverb

30.

Who begins too much accomplishes little.

German Proverb

31.

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

Spanish Proverb

32.

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

Sontag, Susan

33.

A full cup must be carried steadily.

English Proverb

34.

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

35.

He may justly be numbered among the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may early be impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to occur habitually to the mind.

Johnson, Samuel

36.

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

37.

Praise youth and it will prosper.

Irish Proverb

38.

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

Carlyle, Thomas

39.

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.

Seneca

40.

Hold a true friend with both hands.

Nigerian Proverb

41.

If you believe everything you read, better not read.

Japanese Proverb

42.

One kind word can warm three winter months.

Japanese proverb

43.

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

Bulgarian Proverb

44.

It is the part of a good shepherd to shear his flock, not to skin it.

Latin Proverb

45.

What is a epigram? A dwarfish whole. Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

46.

He who would leap high must take a long run.

Danish Proverb

47.

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

African Proverb

48.

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

Latin Proverb

49.

The reverse side also has a reverse side.

Japanese Proverb

50.

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