List of Iranian Proverbs Sayings

The eyes can do a thousand things that the fingers can’t.

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A blind person who sees is better than a seeing person who is blind.

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A greedy man is always poor.

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A tear at the right moment is better than a misplaced smile.

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The arrow that has left the bow never returns.

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A friend is like a poem.

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Whoever can walk on water is probably made of straw.

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Go and wake up your luck.

The leek resembles its seed and little Hassan takes after his father.

Never open a door that you can’t lock again.

Make bread while the oven is hot.

Everyone thinks his own spit tastes good.

What is brought by the wind will be carried away by the wind.

The world is a rose; smell it and pass it on to your friends.

In this world generous people have no money and those with money are not generous.

When a stone hits glass, the glass breaks. When glass hits a stone, the glass breaks.

A drowning man is not troubled by rain.

A blind man who sees is better than a sighted man who is blind.

Epigrams succeed where epics fail.

Doubt makes the mountain which faith can move.

Our real grave is not in the ground but in men’s hearts.

A wolf’s repentance died a long time ago.

Doubt is the key to knowledge.

It is nothing for one to know something unless another knows you know it.

Do not use words that are too big for your mouth.

The lack of gold only a headache.

You only appreciate your father the day you become a father yourself.

The halfwit spoke, and the brainless believed.

God gives to us according to the measure of our hearts.

A gentle hand may lead even an elephant by a hair.

You can’t pick up two melons with one hand.

A bad wound heals but a bad word doesn’t.

Epigrams succeed where epics fail.

A man without passion is no son of Adam.

Forgiveness hides a pleasure that you can’t get back from revenge.

What is brought by the wind will be carried away by the wind.

He who doesn’t go to war roars like a lion.

Write kindness in marble and write injuries in the dust.

A visitor comes with ten blessings, eats one, and leaves nine.

Where the camel is sold for a cent, the ass is worthless.

A child is a bridge to heaven.

To the ant, a few drops of dew is a flood.

The virtuous will be praised but not envied.

Every tear has a smile behind it.

Expect trust from a dog but not from a woman.

Use your enemy’s hand to catch a snake.

He that sows shall also reap.

A man without a child is a king without sorrows.

Who has ever seen tomorrow?

If a fool borrows a book, cut off his hand; but cut off both hands, of the fool who brings it back.

Taking the first step with the good thought, the second with the good word, and the third with the good deed, I enter paradise.

He who eats alone is Satan’s brother.

Great needs grow from great possessions.

Walls have mice and mice have ears.

A man can pose as a wise when searching for wisdom, but if he believes to have find it, is a fool.

Do well the little things now; so shall great things come to thee by and by asking to be done.

The mud that you throw will fall on your own head.

Every fault that a Sultan pleases can be a quality.

Every man goes down to his death bearing in his hands only that which he has given away.

Solved riddles look easy.

Acquaintance without patience is like a candle with no light.

When I am dead the world can be an ocean or a dried up ditch.

Doubtful the die, and dire the cast.

The strictness of the teacher is better to bear than the prejudice of the father.

The dog is a lion in his own house.

When a lion is old, he becomes the plaything of jackals.

Be a lion at home and a fox abroad.

Giving advice to the ignorant is like the rain falling on muddy ground.

A sharp tongue will cut off its own head.

The loveliest of faces are to be seen by moonlight, when one sees half with the eye and half with the fancy.

You don’t put a wooden pot on the fire twice.

One pound of learning requires ten pounds of common sense to apply it.

Every man is the king of his own beard.

A stone thrown at the right time is better than gold given at the wrong time.

When the snake is old, the frog will tease him.

Thick body, weak soul.

With a sweet tongue of kindness, you can drag an elephant by a hair.

Every man is the king of his own beard.

Who has not had a taste longs to do so, but for whom has tasted then the longing is a hundred times more.

There are four things every person has more of than they know; sins, debt, years, and foes.

Maturity comes from wisdom not in the passing of years.

A man’s servant can live for a hundred years; the slave of a woman dies in six months.

He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool, shun him; He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a child, teach him.

The sky is the same color wherever you go.

The arrow that has left the bow never returns.

The tears of the roasting meat kindle the fire even more.

Four walls make a man free.

What the thief stole has always been called expensive.

While yearning for excess we lose the necessities.

God provides, but he needs a nudge.

The cripple will always find a stone to kick.

A sword in the hands of a drunken slave is less dangerous than science in the hands of the immoral.

As the wise man looks for a bridge the fool crosses the river.

I have no right to rejoice at the death of my enemy when I do not have eternal life myself.

If you tell the truth too early, you are laughed at, too late and you are stoned.

For his master the dog is a lion.

For an ant to have wings would be his undoing.

If the Sultan demands five eggs, let his soldiers roast a thousand chickens.

One pound of learning requires ten pounds of common sense to apply it.

A thief is a king till he’s caught.

Listening to good advice is the way to wealth.

Credit is better than wealth.

Life is like perpetual drunkenness, the pleasure passes but the headache remains.

When a cat wants to eat her kittens, she says they look like mice.

One sip of wine is an antidote against death, cupfuls poison life.

Necessity changes a lion into a fox.

With one ear he hears, and with the other he dismisses.

The night hides a world, but reveals a universe.

You cannot hang everything on one nail.

Beware a rickety wall, a savage dog, and a quarrelsome person.

I gave so much advice that hair grew on my tongue.

Draw not thy bow before thy arrow be fixed.

He whose heart is aroused by love will never die.

An egg thief becomes a camel thief.

The lover who gives you her body but not her heart is generous with thorn less roses.

Learn good manners from those who don’t have them.

The doctor must heal his own bald head.

Of everything else the newest; of friends, the oldest.

The night hides a world, but reveals a universe.

If you really have to sin, then choose a sin that you enjoy.

If one has to jump a stream and knows how wide it is, he will not jump.

Woe is he who claims to have found happiness.

Thinking well is wise; planning well, wisher; but doing well is the wisest and best of all.

I can only get better if I have good friends.

The mediator in a fight gets all the blows.

He who has been bitten by a snake fears a piece of string.

Do not let the cat watch over the bacon.

You can’t escape death and guests.

The guard’s sleep is the lamplight of the thief.

Treat your superior as a father, your equal as a brother, and your inferior as a son.

It is not from the love of God that the cat catches mice.

Experience is a comb which nature gives to men when they are bald.

Every man is the architect of his own fortune.

When its time has come, the prey goes to the hunter.

Trust in God, but tie your camel tight.

Solved riddles look easy.

In the hotel of decisions the guests sleep well.

You cannot applaud with one hand.

Don’t just take love, experience it.

He who sits waiting for his neighbor will go to bed hungry.

The tongue of men is the whip of God.

A gentle hand may lead even an elephant by a single hair.

If there are two cooks in one house, the soup is either too salty or too cold.

When fortune turns against you, even jelly breaks your teeth.

It is a real compliment that comes from an enemy.

The fool’s excuse is bigger than the mistake he made.

The big drum only sounds well from a distance.

A snake can change its skin but not its disposition.

The pleasure of finding something is worth more than what you find.

The bride who wears four petticoats has a lot to hide.

Drawn wells have sweetest water.

Give nine, save ten.

One spark is enough to burn a hundred worlds.

Habits are first cobwebs, then cables.

A sword in the hands of a drunken slave is less dangerous than science in the hands of the immoral.

Luck is infatuated with the efficient.

Bravery without foresight is like a blind horse.

If you enter the city of the blind, cover your eyes.

Sometimes the body becomes healthy by being very sick.

Who sows barley cannot reap wheat.

A camel does not drink with a spoon.

As the best wine makes the sharpest vinegar, the truest lover may turn into the worst enemy.

I eat what others have planted and I plant what others want to eat.

Once I had the strength but no wisdom; now I have the wisdom but no strength.

The wise man that does not put his knowledge into practice is like a bee that gives no honey.

Do not choose for anyone what you do not choose for yourself.

It takes two days to learn everything about a man; to know animals you will need more time.

A friend is he who gives a helping hand to his friend in distress.

The branch that bears the most fruit bends itself thankfully towards the ground.

Once a friend, always a friend. *

Bribery makes both parties happy.

When fate strikes physicians are useless.

Little by little the wool becomes a carpet.

The bigger a man’s head, the worse his headache.

Heaven is at the feet of mothers.

Flies will never leave the shop of a sweet maker.

The drowning man is not troubled by rain.

The hand that gives is also the one that receives.

It is a wise man who can laugh at his own jokes.

If you can give me no ointment for my wound, can you help me by not rubbing salt in?

A beggar will always be a beggar even if they give him the whole world as a gift.

Gold bears more gold.

If a man would live in peace, he should be blind, deaf, and dumb.

The shoemaker’s shoes have no heels.

He who wants the rose must respect the thorn.

Necessity can change a lion into a fox.

A mirror does not reflect a broken heart.

Work is twice done by the man in a hurry.

An arrow can be pulled out of a wound, but a hurtful word stays forever in your heart.

He gives a party with bath-water.

Flies will easily fly into the honey; their problem is how to get out.

Only a heart can find the way to another heart.

A dog by your side is better than brother miles away.

Often the best way of giving oneself what one lacks is to take from oneself what one has.

The sky is of the same color wherever you go.

Debts are like women, once you have them you can’t get rid of them.

The larger a man’s roof, the more snow it collects.

When the cat and mouse agree, the grocer is ruined.

Stretch your foot to the length of your blanket.

There is no need for fish in an empty pond.

Doubt is the key to knowledge.

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