List of Best African Proverbs
A lazy fly cannot have a taste of a fresh wound.
A man and a goat can be friends but it would be foolishness for the goat to pay the first visit. |
Hope is a good thing and good things never die. |
When your opponents are you're friends there must be problems ahead. |
An open mind only hurts those who fear their own mistakes. |
Chop your own firewood and it will warm you twice. |
A chicken with beautiful plumage does not sit in a corner. |
He who banishes you is the one who shows you the way. |
There is no virgin in a maternity ward. |
One must talk little and listen much. |
He who has got experience can milk a running cow. |
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. |
Even the mightiest eagle comes down to the treetops to rest. |
Happiness is not perfected until it is shared. |
Its better to stumble with your feet than to stumble with your mouth. |
He who is drunk from wine can sober up, he who is drunk from wealth cannot. |
Death is like a dress that, at some point or another, everyone has to wear. |
No one is without knowledge except he who asks no questions. |
Human blood is heavy; he who has shed it cannot run away. |
Being blind doesn't mean one cannot dream or imagine. |
Ears are usually uninvited guests. |
Return to old watering holes for more than water; friends and dreams are there to meet you. |
How ever big a rat is, it can't threaten a cat. |
A snake's ears only listen to a stick. |
However long the dry season takes a seasonal river will never forget where it used to pass. |
Where rain has ever been trapped before when it rains again it will get trapped once again. |
A boy may cry; but a man as to conceal his pain. |
Life is vanity. |
Life is a teacher. |
Life without battle is life without victory. |
Life is like a mirror if you fawn it, it fawns back and if you smile, it smiles. |
Life is lived forwards, but understood backwards. |
Life is like shopping in a market; when you finish, you go home. |
Life is like a boat you move on when you paddle and stay in the same place if not. |
Life is your ability to breath out every time you breathe in. |
Life is like riding a bicycle; you don't fall off unless you stop pedalling. |
Life is the beginning of death. |
Life is what you make it. |
There are many colourful flowers on the path of life, but the prettiest have the sharpest thorns. |
Generally with life you will be betrayed by close relatives. |
The downfall of a man is not the end of his life. |
Give a man a fish and he won't starve for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he won't starve for his entire life. |
He who guards his lips, guards his life. |
When you ask, you become a fool for a little while and when you don't ask you become a fool for the rest of your life. |
Where there is life there is hope. |
It's the tortoise's shell, ugly and hard that protects its life long journey on earth. |
If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together. |
I am because we are. |
Listening is the most difficult skill to learn and the most important to have. |
A child who is fearless is going to bring tears to his mother's eyes. |
Keep your friends close but remember to keep your enemies closer. |
A woman who delivers a baby in the market square has nothing to hide. |
Love is like a baby, it needs to be treated tenderly. |
Love is like cough you can't hold it back. |
Love is a painkiller. |
Love begets love. |
Love is like a baby; it needs to be treated tenderly. |
Love is in blood not in talking. |
Love never gets lost it's only kept. |
She is beautiful; she has love, understands; she respects herself and others; everyone likes, loves and honours her; she is a goddess. |
True love means what's mine is yours. |
It's better to fall from a tree and a break your back than to fall in love and break your heart. |
Many hens may be in love with one cock, but none will be jealous of the other. |
It's much easier to fall in love than to stay in love. |
He who is grown up should respect and love others. |
Live patiently in the world; know that those who hate you are more numerous than those who love you. |
It is difficult for two long-nosed lovers to kiss. |
He who loves the vase loves also what is inside. |
Brothers love each other when they are equally rich. |
The grave only calls those death loves. |
If you're a good person even after death your grave is loved. |
When one is in love, a cliff becomes a meadow. |
He who doesn't feel jealousy is not in love. |
A happy man marries the girl he loves, but a happier man loves the girl he marries. |
What you help a child to love can be more important than what you help him to learn. |
To be able to love other people you must be able to love yourself. |
To love that one who never loves you is like rain falling in the forest. |
Don't look into the eyes of your lover, or you will see what he has told many women before. |
There is no physician who can cure the disease of love. |
To love someone who does not love you, is like shaking a tree to make the dew drops fall. |
Who does not love to dance, does not love to sing. |
It is better to be loved than feared. |
Pretend you are dead and you will see who really loves you. |
The buttocks are like a married couple though there is constant friction between them; they will still love and live together. |
The partridge loves peas, but not those that go into the pot with it. |
To love a king is not bad, but a king who loves you is better. |
A fish and bird may fall in love but the two cannot build a home together. |
Why take away something by force which you can obtain by love. |
Bees sting him who loves honey. |
The path leads towards loved ones not thorns. |
Children are the reward of life. |
A silly daughter teaches her mother how to bear children. |
If you can't hold children in your arms, please hold them in your heart. |
An immoral father-in-law cannot advise his children well. |
Haste and hurry can only bear children with many regrets. |
As you do for your ancestors, your children will do for you. |
Regrets are much like grandchildren; they come much later. |
Success is a ladder which cannot be climbed with hands in your pocket. |
Success in life largely depends on how you handle your failures. |
The two hardest things in life to handle are success and failure. |
The success of a man is through the soles of his feet, that of a woman is from her legs. |
He who wakes up and finds himself a success hasn't been asleep. |
Those who respect the elderly pave their own road toward success. |
The road to success is always under construction. |
You cannot climb a bid of success with your hands tied up. |
The secret of success is to start from scratch. |
Eating tough meat is always harder for a toothless lion. |
An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep. |
Those who move are the ones who see the lion's footprints. |
He that fought the lion must surely have the lion's claws in his body. |
When a lion runs and looks back, its not that he is afraid, rather he is trying to see the distance he has covered. |
The bravery of a lion doesn't protect it from the spear of a hunter. |
What is said over the dead lion's body could not be said to him alive. |
Only a patient man can milk a lioness. |
Whoever rides on the lion's back must surely end up in the lion's stomach. |
When a lion cannot find the flesh to feed on, it has no choice but to eat the grass. |
A cat in its castle has a lion's teeth.mothers |
Where the cattle stand together, the lion lies down hungry. |
The cat may look like a lion, but that does not make it a lion. |
Without impalas and hyenas, the lion cannot be the king of the jungle. |
The lion does not turn around when a small dog barks. |
When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. |
Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter. |
No matter how well tamed a lion, it will one day go back to the bush. |
Only a goat that is tired of life invites a lion to dinner. |
A roaring lion kills no game. |
Roaring lions kill no prey. |
Do not try to fight a lion if you are not one yourself. |
The hand that tied the lion knows best how to untie it. |
Until Lions have their own historians tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. |
When the threads unite, they can tie the lion. |
It is not the lamb that should go and ask the lion if it has had dinner. |
The lion may be king of the jungle but he knows, he shouldn't stand in the way of the elephant. |
Dreams are voices of ancestors. |
Silence brings wisdom of the ancestors. |
Don't underestimate the wisdom of ancestors. |
If you hate your ancestors then assume your dead than you will love the hereafter. |
Remember your ancestors because you're not better than them. |
Don't laugh at the nakedness of our ancestors because before their eyes we're all naked for our spirits belong to them. |
Those who never protect the values of their ancestors their soul will never rest peacefully. |
A child doesn't belong to the father or mother; a child belongs to the ancestors. |
To neglect one's ancestors would bring ill-fortune and failure in life. |
If you lie the ancestors will punish you. |
No man can outwit the ancestors. |
Open your ears to the ancestors and you will understand the language of spirits. |
Remember the wisdom of your ancestors in order to become wise. |
A parent should not give up modelling their children because the ancestors too never give up on us. |
It is better to be kind to our neighbors than to cross the world to offer incense to our ancestors. |
You ask for the ancestors' help and then help yourself. |
The ancestors may annoy you but don't make a mistake of annoying them back, they may annoy you forever. |
Blessings of ancestors are greater than those of a living human being. |
Wisdom does not come overnight. |
Wisdom outweighs strength. |
Wisdom is like a baobab tree, no one individual can embrace it. |
| Wisdom is like a good skin bag every man carries his own. |
Old men and women in the village are books of history and wisdom. |
One who causes others misfortune also teaches them wisdom. |
Hunt in every jungle, for there is wisdom and good hunting in all of them. |
With much knowledge there is much sorrow, with much wisdom there is much weeping. |
She who grinds millet should have wisdom about rainy clouds and winds. |
If you're filled with pride then you will not have room for wisdom. |
The fool sucks wisdom, as he porter sups, And cobblers grow fine speakers in their cups. |
Knowledge without wisdom is like water without sand. |
If you fill your head with pride you will lack space for wisdom. |
The mind of a fool is like a broken pot it will hold no wisdom. |
It is from listening to old men that you learn wisdom. |
If you observe attentively you will even find wisdom in shadows. |
The mouth of an elderly man is without teeth, but never without words of wisdom. |
If wisdom is measured by the size of the beard then the goat is a philosopher king. |
He who marries a beauty marries trouble. |
A woman's polite devotion is her greatest beauty. |
There is always a winner even in a monkey's beauty contest. |
A woman who pursues a man for sex looses her spiritual beauty. |
Having beauty doesn't mean understanding the perseverance of marriage. |
Despite the beauty of the moon, sun and the stars, the sky also has a threatening thunder and striking lightening. |
The beauty of a woman becomes useless if there is no one to admire it. |
The strong will always rule, it's only a question of the content of the strength. |
A stealing dog strengthens its back. |
Cleverness is better than strength. |
The thrower of stones throws away the strength of his own arm. |
The one who hasn't strength to pound yams pretends to drive away flies from the yams. |
The spirits are the strength and counsel to the living. |
A woman's strength is a multitude of words. |
The strength of the elderly is in the ears and on the lips. |
What we do with pity another would call it strength. |
The strength of the wolf is in the pack, the strength of the pack is in the wolf. |
Man is like palm-wine: when young, sweet but without strength; in old age, strong but harsh. |
The strength of a man can't be determined by is size. |
When you chase a fellow man reserve the strength to switch you back when he recharges and turns. |
A man who does no hard work will never know the value of rest. |
Work is good, as long as you don't forget to live. |
For one to succeed in life, one has to work hard. |
A hammer does not work with iron. |
A word written stays forever than hundred spoken work. |
It is not work that kills, but worry. |
As long as the white man stutters, the interpreters have a lot of work. |
He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward. |
It's not the monkey on top that make a tree fall but it's the work and effort of numerous small insects and ants. |
He who starts his work early enough is neither hit by the severe sun heat nor the burning sand. |
Your mind is like a parachute; it only works when it's open. |
The best preparation for tomorrow is to make sure today's work is superbly done. |
If you don't work you shan't eat. |
Those at piece, work for it. |
He who came to work never sleeps. |
You cannot work for food when there is no food for work. |
Morning is the start of a day's work. |
The mouth does not eat if the feet do not walk and the hands work. |
You must judge a man by the work of his hands. |
He who does is work properly has been well advised. |
Money is like the waters of a sailing river it flows away. |
If you want to improve your memory, lend someone money. |
Money can even corrupt the virtuous. |
Money is sharper than a sword. |
He who has people is richer than he who has money. |
It is no disgrace at all to work for money. |
| If it hurts to spend your money, you will go hungry. |
When a blind man is happy he gives money to his child to buy kerosene for his lamp. |
A fool and his money is one big party. |
If money where to be found up in the trees, most people would be married to monkeys. |
What is sweet in a fools mouth will surely finish is money. |
The voices of the ancestors are the voices of the gods. |
What the gods keep for the poor, no man can destroy. |
A good devil is as equal as to a bad god. |
Don't throw away your nets if you catch nothing, you never know what the gods are planning next. |
God conceals himself from the mind of man, but reveals himself to his heart. |
He that dines with the gods must do so with a very long spoon. |
When a man says yes, his personal god says yes also. |
The plant God favors will grow even without rain. |
He who drinks wine without libation is a traitor to the gods. |
A sin against a brother or sister is an offence against the gods. |
Don't try to get blood from a locust; God didn't put it in there. |
He who does not know is forgiven by God. |
When you lose on the drum-beating if the gods, you lose on the rhythm and pace of life. |
No matter how much you feed a lizard it cannot become a crocodile. |
If you wait for the downfall of the king, god will not make it sound. |
When one is in trouble, one remembers God. |
It is when one holds the sacrificial lamb that he begins to seek the gods. |
Where God boils his yam that is exactly where the devil roasts his fish. |
Let us be glad to those who make us happy for their gods who make our souls happy. |
Praise of the moon the god. |
When you're a stranger in a land, if good comes to it may you have you share and if bad comes let it go to the owners of the land who know what gods should be appeased. |
Even your dog knows the homes of your friends. |
Search for a friend with no faults and you will remain with no friends. |
As soon as you question someone's integrity, it is a reflection of your own. |
The new moon cannot come until the other has gone. |
If the rhythm of the drum beat changes, the dance step must adapt. |
Dreams are related to the past but connected to the future. |
Everything has a pattern and a partner. |
A wind can move the branches of trees but it will never move the head of a man. |
Even a horn can be stopped from fighting and made to sing forever. |
Hooting all right and sleeping all day, doesn't make an owl wise. |
For the sake of the rose the thorn is watered too. |
A bad wound deserves strong medicine. |
If it is not broken don't try to fix it. |
A good day shows itself early in the morning. |
If it's not here and now, who cares about what and when? |
All plants are our brothers and sisters and they talk to us and if we listen we can hear them. |
The madman, who throws a stone into a crowded market, forgets that his own mother could be hit by his madness. |
The miserly man is like a fattened ox: he will give of his fat only when he has been deprived of his life. |
During a storm you seek shelter under a tree and not the clouds. |
If nakedness promises to cloth you then look at its name. |
A baby on its mother's back doesn't know the journey is long. |
If opportunity doesn't knock build a door. |
The mouse says: I dig a hole without a hoe; the snake says: climb a tree without arms. |
If she can't dig or cook send her back to her father. |
Ideas are worth a dime dozen, but people who put them into action are priceless. |
Each trip gives you its own uniqueness. |
If someone is walking towards you, you don't need to tell him "come here." |
If you want to sit under a shade in your old age plant a tree now. |
All war follow a demonstrate failure of difficulty diplomacy. |
If sweetness be excessive, it is no longer sweetness. |
The nail that sticks out is the one that gets hammered down. |
Don't water your friend's garden when yours is full of weeds. |
If you what the hyena to eat a person then tie on him goats ears. |
One who eats alone cannot discuss the taste of the food with others. |
The one chased away with a stick comes back and the one chassed away with reason doesn't come back. |
A palm wine taper does not stop tapping palm wine because he once fell from the top of a palm wine tree. |
Don't undermine my silence, its got reason; don't rate it, it as got no scale. |
Ears that do not listen to advice, accompany the head when it is chopped off. |
If you're holding someone you can drop him and move on. |
Always stamp your hunting nets where the animal is going to pass. |
The one who wrestles with a big man will soon wear himself out. |
Don't underestimate the determination of a quiet person. |
A bachelor should always spend minimum time with a friend's wife. |
Eating a lot does not satisfy greediness. |
If you're to jump a swamp, you need to make one long hurdle. |
A bird doesn't forget one who killed off his feathers during the rain season. |
Don't count the many times a man falls but those times he rises up. |
A good man gone wrong is usually a bad man found out. |
The person who is coming from the bowels of the earth doesn't despise even the smallest amount of sunshine. |
If your mouth is in someone else's kitchen it cannot get its independence. |
Even a healer's lies are a big relief to a sick person. |
The problem with the palace attendant isn't how to steal the king's drums but where to play them from. |
Even boiled water can extinguish a fire. |
A barren woman is like a leaking pot. |
Enjoy breakfast all alone, share lunch with your best friend and give dinner to your enemy. |
The restless grasshopper only finds rest in the gizzard of a bird. |
A bad habit is like fire you can't play with it and expect not to get burnt. |
In a family if you have somebody who is troublesome it's the family members who are worried than the troublesome member. |
Even if a baby seems unpleasant to look at, his mother never refuses him. |
A bachelor's wife doesn't have ears. |
Even if the hen is poor it cannot leave blank eggs. |
The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay. |
An egg today is better than a chicken tomorrow. |
Knowledge is not the main thing, but deeds. |
Even if you close your eyes while looking in the mirror the image remains yours. |
| In the absence of water lizards can claim to be crocodiles. |
Don't expect to be offered a chair when you are visiting a place where the chief sits on the floor. |
A person cutting the path doesn't know that it is crooked. |
The sky is wide enough for two birds to fly without their wings touching. |
Even if you rease your clothes in very hot water you still need to dry them. |
An elephant cannot thin to a cow size. |
It costs you your good spirit to steal than buying or seeking. |
A good name is better than wealth. |
Even if you're rich, you cannot bury yourself. |
It is a surprise that the cock should hold a grudge against the pot, instead of the knife that killed it. |
An elephant grows and becomes an adult, even if people do not like it. |
The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes didn't have tears. |
Even the high and noble bow before the barber. |
A bad cook also has his/her share of the bad food. |
A person is what he eats. |
It is childish to remain in a hole when you can take yourself out. |
A barber does not shave himself. |
Don't look at the visitor's face but at his stomach. |
It is hard even for the most selfish man to eat fish in the darkness. |
The sun will shine on those who are standing before it shines on those who are sitting. |
An elephant that kills a rat cannot be considered a hero. |
Even the small leopard is called leopard. |
A good reputation is something you must pay for, but you can never buy. |
The teeth that cannot move in unison cannot bit a piece of meat. |
People should not talk while they are eating or pepper may go down the wrong way. |
Don't make a goat your friend if your skirt is made of plantation leaves, or else it will strip you naked. |
It is not by watching a newly wed wife that she is going to become pregnant. |
A person who is always looking at the sky will never discover anything on the ground. |
Even though the elephant is huge enough it cannot carry a big tail. |
On the day a monkey dies, all the trees are slippery. |
The time to slap a king is the time when a fly touches on his cheek. |
A beggar's knees are supple. |
Even when a goat knows that it is being dragged to graze, it still resists. |
It is not worth telling a lovely story at the funeral. |
A grasshopper that sleeps about will be soon awake in a lizard's mouth. |
Even when there is no rooster, the morning will still start. |
A person who is not disciplined cannot be cautioned. |
The tooth is a fool because it smiles to whom it even dislikes. |
It is only when you look down that you can see your nose. |
Don't move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless. |
A bird doesn't alert his fellow bird that a stone is coming. |
Even without drumbeats, banana leaves dance. |
It is the spirit that walks a person through darkness. |
An empty sack cannot stand. |
Every action has its repercussions. |
A green grass in the green snake. |
Don't see animals around the village and say there is nobody to hunt them. |
The voice that comes to borrow is more humble than the voice that comes to sake payment. |
It takes a breast for a child to know it's mother and it takes a mother for a child to know its father. |
A bird may fly off the earth and land on an anthill, but it will still be on the ground. |
Every exit is an entry to somewhere. |
A guest sees more in an hour than a host in a year. |
Every frog is a gazelle in the eyes of its mother. |
It's better fast than later. |
A person who sells eggs doesn't start a fight in the market. |
Every hill has its leopard. |
The weed that grows by the riverbank will not suffer the effect of draught. |
Every old man was once a young man but not every young man will become an old man. |
A bird with fire on its tail burns its own nest. |
Everyone has a right to be stupid some just abuse the right. |
The wise create proverbs for fools to learn, not to repeat. |
Don't show a hyena how well you can bite. |
An intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend. |
The words of the elders do not lock all the doors, they leave the right door open. |
Everywhere there is a lot of mad even an elephant will slip. |
A blind person knows his environment more than a visitor with eyes. |
Evil prospers because good men fail to act. |
A person's cleverness is not shown by how many words he utters at once but how he utters them. |
It's the big birds that teach the young ones to flight. |
Fire is always a good maid, but a bad boss. |
The worm that exposes itself on the ground is waiting for a lucky bird to devour it. |
An old man may miss his target with a stone but never with his word. |
Firewood yields ash. |
A hen's curses have never killed the eagle. |
Food gained by fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with gravel in his mouth. |
It's unworthy to dig a new pit to fill up an old one. |
A bowl should not laugh when a calabash breaks. |
Peace is costly but it is worth the expense. |
Foolhardiness made the rat try to jump over the fireplace. |
A poor person has no struggles. |
For the fisherman, the fun is over when the fish are in the net. |
An only palm-fruit doesn't get lost in the fire. |
For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today. |
A home without a woman is like a barn without a yam. |
Kindness is a language, which the blind can see and the deaf can hear. |
There are three things that a man must know to survive in this world: what is too much for him, what is too little, and what is just right. |
A bush that doesn't rotate baskets must not grow mushrooms. |
Generosity is white and pure like milk. |
Anger against a brother is felt in the flesh, not in the bone. |
Get what to lend out and at the same time how to demand it back, for payment might be a tussle. |
Knowledge is like a garden, if you don't cultivate it you cannot harvest it. |
There is no day that goes without the moon and no day that goes without sunrise and sunset. |
A pregnant woman cannot claim to be a virgin. |
A camel cannot see the crookedness of its neck. |
Lack of knowledge is darker than night. |
Give me a fish and I will eat today, teach me to fish and I will eat for a lifetime. |
There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. |
A house is for a voyage but a tomb is for eternity. |
This world is a harsh place, this world. |
He who wanders along the beach doesn't eat his rice dry. |
A proud heart can survive a general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. |
Good millet is known at the harvest. |
In the great river there are large and small fish. |
A canoe peddler doesn't tell the crocodile he has along snout until he's crossed the river. |
Good resolutions are like babies crying in church, they should be carried out immediately. |
Those who arrive to the spring first, drink the purest water. |
Any dead fish can flow down the river but it takes a live one to swim back up stream. |
Good things sell themselves; those that are bad have to be advertised. |
A hungry man will thrust his fingers into a snake's hole in search of a grasshopper. |
Those who have not crossed the river yet should not laugh at those who are drowning. |
Like a person, even the moon grows and vanishes in a transitional process. |
Great events may stem from words of no importance. |
No matter how big a child is, he cannot deny that he was once carried on the back of a woman. |
Anyone can be polite to a king, but it takes a gentleman to be polite to a beggar. |
Grass doesn't grow on a bushy road. |
A cat keeps its crawls inside until it meets a mouse. |
Though it is the hand that gives, the man must be thanked. |
| Greatness is not achieved with violence. |
A raindrop does not spare the head of the notable. |
Happiness is like a perfume, you cannot pour it all on others without allowing a few drops to fall on yourself. |
Though the sky belongs to the bird it can't fly when it's raining. |
Lower your head modestly while passing, and you will harvest bananas. |
A hunter with one arrow doesn't shoot with a careless aim. |
Happiness often sneaks through your door when you left the door open. |
Man's greatest battles are the ones he fights within himself. |
Thunder cannot make a deaf person hear. |
Pain is inevitable suffering is optional. |
Anyone who has sold an old lady, knows the price of an old man. |
| If you do not have patience you cannot make beer. |
A centipede is not crippled by the loss of one limb. |
| Milk and honey have different colours, but they share the same house peacefully. |
Haste makes waste. |
A beautiful one hurts the heart. |
To a man who only has a hammer in his tool kit, every problem looks like a nail. |
A rat stinks, but it has its own home. |
Having a good discussion is like having riches. |
A hyena cannot smell its own stench. |
To handle yourself use your head to handle others use your heart. |
Having little knowledge is like having your hands tied around your neck like a slave. |
A razor may be sharper than an ax, but it cannot cut wood. |
Monkeys don't advise there young ones to be careful on trees they just remind them of the distance to the ground. |
He is a wise man who has no worries about the things he doesn't have but he rejoices for those things that he has. |
A chick that will grow into a cock can be spotted the very day it hatches. |
To one who does not know , a small garden is a forest. |
He ought to be feared who sends you with a message, not the one to whom you are sent. |
Move your neck according to the music. |
As long as a cock lives, it is said to have belonged to the child of the house; but when it is slaughtered for super, it is then that the real owner emerges. |
To whom to much is given we require too much from him. |
A hypocrite's hatred is hidden behind flattering words. |
Music speaks louder than words. |
A reflection does not see itself. |
He who asks for the meaning of a proverb has called her/his mother's dowry a waste. |
Never insult your enemy while you're laying down unless there is someone else standing by. |
A chief in the village never sees the devil. |
If you are digging a pit for your enemy, don't make it too deep, for you may fall into it. |
He who asks you to converse ends up telling others that you're shouting. |
He who betrays you is not one from far away. |
Never lose heart because whatever is hot must in the end turn cold. |
Travel and you will see them, sit and they will come to you. |
A juicy bone is useless to a dog with no teeth. |
He who burns down his house knows why ashes cost a fortune. |
A restless grasshopper eventually ends up in a birds teeth. |
News does not sleep on the way. |
Truth cannot be hidden forever beneath evil. |
He who crosses a bridge to paradise and blows it after him is going to hell. |
No goal is unachievable. |
As the dog said, "If I fall down for you and you fall down for me, it is playing. |
Two cats can never be equal; one will always be bigger than the other. |
He who dies of over eating doesn't wither. |
Even a close friend cannot rescue one from old age. |
A king who doesn't tolerate comments about his mouth shouldn't eat in public. |
He who does not cultivate his field, will die of hunger. |
No matter how beautiful and well crafted a coffin might look, it will not make anyone wish for death. |
A river doesn't flow through the forest without felling the trees. |
He who doesn't clean his mouth before breakfast always complains that the food is sour. |
A child can play with its mother's breasts, but not its father's testicles. |
Until a crab finds itself in a very hot pot of soup, it will never understand that water can be both cold and hot. |
A chief may have more wives than he can remember but you dare not try to share his wives with him. |
No matter how far you are from your house, you will keep going until you get home. |
A river that forgets its source will soon dry out. |
He who doesn't know a grave's coldness, doesn't give the dead their respect. |
A knife does not recognize its owner. |
Until the rotten tooth is pulled out cautiously, the mouth will not have rest. |
No matter how high the vulture may choose to soar, the eagle will remain king of the sky. |
He who doesn't know what kills can sit on fire. |
As the wound inflames the finger, so thought inflames the mind. |
He who doesn't know you, will not value you. |
A rock in the middle of the sea is never afraid of the rain. |
Used recklessly then s/he must have inherited the misused property. |
No matter how long a fallen tree stays in the river it can never be a crocodile. |
A child doesn't breast-feed from a stepmother if its mother is still alive. |
Wars are created by people to old to fight for those to young to die. |
A bottle that believes it's cracked to smile it will end up on the dustbin. |
He who falls, teaches others a lesson. |
A lamb takes after its mother. |
He who feeds the child must be allowed to lick his fingers. |
Ashes fly back into the face of him who throws them. |
| Water that has been begged for does not quench the thirst. |
He who forgets his past is lost. |
No matter how many house chores you complete, there are always more to be done. |
A satisfied man doesn't understand the feeling of a hungry man. |
A child who eats too much shouldn't blame is buttock. |
What comes from the lips reaches the ears, what comes from the heart reaches the heart. |
| No matter how much milk a cow has, you cannot milk butter from it. |
He who has given up doesn't blame the one moving on. |
At a hunting expedition you cannot apportion the meat before you kill the animal. |
He who has no pond must not breed crocodiles. |
A lazy fly cannot have a taste of a fresh wound. * |
No matter how painful the loss, the bereaved won't be buried with the corpse. |
What is put in a basket before going to the market won't be the same thing returned in the basket. |
A second wife cannot celebrate the beating of the first wife because that same beating awaits her when the third wife arrives. |
He who has the necessities has no shame. |
No matter how sharp your teeth are, you can't bite water. |
What makes a fool excited now a wise person had heard before and isn't excited. |
A child who knows how to wash his hands will eat with the chiefs. |
He who is always in a hurry to get things done he never gets it done right. |
A lazy man's farm is the breeding ground for snakes. |
He who is born a fool is never cured. |
Authority is in generosity. |
No matter how tough the current of a river may be it is the calabash that triumphal over the river. |
What the elders see while sitting the young ones standing on their toes won't see. |
He who is close to you knows more about you than he who is far away. |
Bad friends will prevent you from having good friends. |
He who is first to receive something forgets when his friend will receive their share. |
It's useless to tell a river to stop running; the best thing is to learn how to swim in the direction it's flowing. |
A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which his mother puts into his palm. |
No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. |
He who is intelligent is taught. |
A short person touches where he can reach. |
Being well dressed does not prevent one from being poor. |
Bad officials are elected by poor citizens who do not vote. |
Nobody wages war with ghosts. |
When a blind man tells you he is going to throw a stone, know that his foot is on the stone. |
A leader is he who tells his people what they must hear, not what they want to hear. |
He who is not happy with the position of the sun should climb and change it. |
A clean conscience makes a soft pillow. |
He who is wise endeavours to learn how to understand the truth not less than that. |
When a cow is crying, a dog is making a party. |
Not the place where I was born but where I hang my hat is home. |
A leopard is such an elusive animal that it can only be caught by the combined force of a man and his father-in-law. |
He who judges others and never allows to be judged looses friends. |
Be aware of a man with a sweet tongue he can lead you to buying bad meat. |
He who learns, teaches. |
A sick way between two people can only be cared for if the two of them die. |
He who lies by the fireside knows how it burns. |
Be careful of what you own because what you own might eventually own you. |
One camel does not make fun of the other camel's hump. |
A cock says it's because of the situation it is faced with that it has its knees in the opposite direction. |
When a needle falls into a deep well, many people will look into the well, but few will be ready to go down after it. |
He who moves with each day is better than another who waits for luck. |
Beat one dog and the others will run away. |
One finger cannot wash the whole face. |
He who never knows where is coming from will never know where he is going. |
A lie has many variations, the truth none. |
It is in the house of a coward that people gather and point to the tomb of yesterday's warrior. |
When a stiff-necked bull stands with its four legs planted firmly and refuses to move, you cannot make it go ahead only by pulling it by the reins and using your whip. |
He who pelts another with paddles asks for stones in return. |
He who pursues a hatched bird teaches it how to fly. |
A corn swallowed by a fowl will never germinate in its belly. |
He who rides upon an ass cannot help but smell its gas. |
Before buying a house, see who your neighbours will be. |
He who sacks his wife because she eats a lot will end up marrying a cannibal. |
A little subtleness is better than a lot of force. |
When problems visit a man it arrives with its own bed and table. |
He who says what will I do will never lack what to do. |
A slave must be humble. |
Only a fool believes that the clouds obscure the splendour of the moon. It has shined behind them for eternity. |
| When the bee comes to your house, let her have beer; you may want to visit the bee's house some day. |
When one hand is injured the other nurses it, when both hands are injured they nurse each other. |
Before shooting, one must aim. |
He who takes a light to find a snake should start at his own feet. |
Only the person who wears the shoe feels it when it pitches. |
A cow must graze where she is tied. |
When the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. |
He who talks forgets what he said but he who listens can't forget. |
A lizard longs to sit down but its tail doesn't let it. |
He who talks to you while travelling at night is thanked in the morning. |
Before you buy shoes, measure your feet. |
Once the teeth are together they can crack the bone. |
Those who think there too big to do little things are perhaps to small to do big things. |
When the cockroach decides to make the cock its friend it must be ready to end up in the cock's stomach. |
He who ventures into the bush should close his ears to rattling. |
A coward always hides behind someone else after he has thrown a stone. |
He who waits for the moon waits for darkness. |
People are like chameleons; circumstances make them change their colour. |
A small axe is not sufficient to cut down a large tree. |
He who wakes up early in the morning receives a bundle of blessings. |
When the hunter returns and is holding mushrooms, don't ask him about how his hunt went. |
A long lasting visitor grinds the wine. |
He who wants authority should never be a visitor. |
People who drink to drown their sorrows, should be told that sorrow knows how to swim. |
A crime eats its own child. |
He who wants to take much dies before going to the in-laws for introduction. |
A small shrub may grow into a tree. |
When there is a big tree, small ones climb on its back to reach the sun. |
He whose mother is naked is not likely to clothe his aunt. |
A day of hunger is not starvation. |
Heal yourself first before you heal others. |
If you get rich, be in a dark corner when you jump for joy. |
Being a good friend of a scorpion doesn't mean that you can't be stung by a honeybee. |
Quarrels end, but words once spoken never die. |
Help me during the flood, and I will help you during the drought. |
A mad dog bites anything except itself. |
Him with a bushy field cannot harvest edibles from it. |
A snake and millipede can both craw on their bellies but this doesn't make them brothers. |
There is no better mirror than a best friend. |
Clothes make the man. |
Him with is own knowledge know how to eat from it. |
A dead body cannot urge over how it should be placed in the grave. |
Gossiping about the enemy can result in a war. |
A camel never sees its own hump. |
Defeat is not failure but trail is total failure. |
Honest advice doesn't destroy true friendship. |
Quick Links