Arabian Proverbs

Sayings of Arabian origin

• An envious person is the unhappiest.
• The dreams of a cat are full of mice.
• Rather a slip of the foot than a slip of the pen.
• Trust in God, but tie your camel.
• His clothes are glittery and shiny but he doesn’t have a pot to cook in.
• To threaten the brave with death is like promising water to a duck.
• The envious were created just to be infuriated.
• The carpenter’s door is loose.
• It is not the bullet that kills you, it is fate.
• He who only thinks about what is in his belly is worth less than what comes out of it.
• If you give in to a fool, he will say, “This is because they are afraid of me.”
• The tree of silence bears the fruit of peace.
• Nothing else ruins the truth like stretching it.
• The best act of generosity is that which is quickly done.
• If you are charitable, you are rich.
• Better a thousand enemies outside the tent than one within.
• Another man’s bread will not fill your belly.
• Rather the cruelty of the Turks than the justice of the Bedouins.
• Silence is the interpreter of happiness.
• Need brings ways.
• Lying and stealing are next door neighbors.
• Put things into their places, and they will put you into your place.
• Give me wool and tomorrow you will have a sheep.
• Forgiveness is more satisfying than revenge.
• An unjust king is like a river without water.
• If we are both masters, then who shall lead the mules?
• Mankind is made out of forgetfulness.
• Reproaches are the soap of the heart.
• Never give advice in a crowd.
• Beware: some liars tell the truth.
• A little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal.
• Ignorance is the most terrible acquaintance.
• Righteousness is half of religion.
• Sleep early and wake up early and see how healthy you will be.
• As you sow, so shall you reap.
• Not to use trickery is also trickery.
• Seven days king, seven days minister, slave for the rest of your life.
• Walls are the notebooks of fools.
• The wisest is the one who can forgive.
• The hand of God is with the group.
• Who works achieves and who sows reaps.
• Manhood is by knowledge, not by looks.
• Hobby horses are more expensive than Arabian stallions.
• The greatest tranquility is when we desire nothing.
• Wealth comes like a turtle, and runs away like a gazelle.
• He with prayer in his heart never misses it .
• The hasty and the tardy meet at the ferry.
• Silence is a cure for grief.
• Much ado about nothing.
• Every ambitious man is a captive and every covetous one a pauper.
• Never tell your friends what your enemy may not hear.
• We taught them how to beg and they raced us to the doors.
• Men must sew up tears with gentleness.
• If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart.
• Save your white coin for your black day.
• He who uses bad incense must be careful not to burn his sleeves.
• The strength of the heart comes from the soundness of the faith.
• A drowning man cares not about getting wet.
• Ask your purse what you should buy.
• You may forget with whom you laughed, but you will never forget with whom you wept.
• Ask me what are my virtues, not about the color of my skin.
• The dry reed does not seek the company of fire.
• Feed the hungry, visit the sick and free the captive.
• There are two kinds of men: those who could be happy and are not, and those who search for happiness and find it not.
• The house of danger is built upon the borders of safety.
• Beauty doesn’t exist, men only dream it.
• If a wife is unfaithful then the husband is partly to blame.
• After lunch, rest; after dinner take a walk.
• Make distance between you and every dirtiness.
• Allah does not love the aggressors.
• The door that the wind comes from, close it and relax.
• A wise man associating with the vicious becomes an idiot; a dog traveling with good men becomes a rational being.
• If you’re unable to reward, then make sure to thank.
• If a dog offers to help you across the river, don’t ask if he is suffering from the mange.
• Days are like countries.
• One day in perfect health is a lot.
• The ink of a scholar is worth as much as the martyr’s blood.
• Work for your future as if you are going to live forever, for your afterlife as if you are going to die tomorrow.
• Winds blow counter to what the ship wants.
• The slave must be content with the joys of his master.
• A book is a garden carried in the pocket.
• Light your lamp first at home and afterwards at the mosque.
• The tongue of experience utters the most truth.
• The soul of a fool is always dancing on the tip of his tongue.
• Both the fast and the slow will meet each other on the ferry boat.
• Never trust a fool with a sword.
• The person who predicts the future is lying, even when he is right.
• When the reason is known, there will be no more shock.
• Fear the person who fears you.
• He who lies for you will lie about you.
• Youth is a kind of illness cured only by the passing years.
• An army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
• Every future is not far away.
• The best answer will come from the person who is not angry.
• If you stop every time a dog barks, your road will never end.
• The honey only sticks to the mustache of the one who licked it.
• A man who was always complaining was quite rightly sent to hell. “Why are you burning damp wood?” was his first comment.
• Doubt is the key to all knowledge.
• A sponge to wipe away the past; a rose to sweeten the present; a kiss to greet the future.
• He makes a dome out of a grain.
• When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.
• A wise man’s day is worth a fool’s life.
• Hope springs eternal breast.
• How tight can life be without the space of hope?
• The wound of words is worse than the wound of swords.
• The mouth of a canon is less dangerous than that of a scandalmonger.
• Death is a black camel that lies down at every door. Sooner or later you must ride the camel.
• It is better to die in revenge than to live on in shame.
• The rope of lying is short.
• The corn will bend but it still ends up in the mill.
• He who starts a lawsuit makes a hole in the dike.
• What is learned in youth is carved in stone.
• The remedy of time is patience.
• In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma, but never let him be the full stop.
• We as people eat to live and not live to eat..
• If you want to take revenge on a man, send him a really beautiful woman.
• The nail supports the hoof, the hoof the horse, the horse the man, the man the world.
• Better to have bread and an onion with peace than stuffed fowl with strife.
• Give the dough to the baker even if he ate half of it.
• All sunshine makes the desert.
• Evil people know one another.
• If you buy cheap meat, you’ll smell what you have saved when it boils.
• All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
• Salt will never be worm-eaten.
• Friends who take care of each other never get scared, and when rain pours they’re never wet.
• Good health is a crown worn by the healthy than only the ill can see.
• Your friend will swallow your mistakes, your enemy will present them on a plate.
• He who walks alone shall surely arrive first.
• You know a man by the sweat of his brow and the strength of his word.
• A friend is known when needed.
• The most useful holy war is the one fought against your own passions.
• A house divided cannot stand.
• Keep away from trouble and sing to it.
• Life, like a fire, begins in smoke and ends in ashes.
• A grateful dog has more worth than an ungrateful man.
• The fruit of silence is tranquility.
• Learning is a treasury whose keys are queries.
• If a man believes in a stone, that stone will serve him well.
• If you want to hit your mother-in-law, be sure to split her head.
• Keeping a secret is a commitment.
• A hand that has been chopped off cannot steal any more.
• Go with the lesser of two evils.
• This cub is from that lion.
• Actions speak louder than words.
• There is nothing so powerful as truth.
• Man can have nothing but what he strives for.
• The stingy have large porches and little morality.
• Fire only burns he who approaches it.
• Compassion is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back.
• Hold it for me and i’ll cut for you.
• Love sees clearly, hate even more so, but jealousy sees the most clearly, because it is equal to love plus hate.
• Every faller has a catcher.
• Lying is a disease, and truth is a cure.

Arabs are a major panethnic group whose native language is Arabic, comprising the majority of the Arab World.They primarily inhabit Western Asia, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa. Before the spread of Islam, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic tribes inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula. In modern usage Arabic-speaking populations are a highly heterogeneous collection of peoples, with diverse ancestral origins and identities. The ties that bind the Arab people are common linguistic, cultural, and political traditions. As such, Arab identity is based on one or more of genealogical, linguistic or cultural grounds, although with competing identities often taking a more prominent role, based on considerations including regional, national, clan, kin, sect, and tribe affiliations and relationships. If the Arab panethnicity is regarded as a single population, then it constitutes one of the world’s largest groups after Han Chinese.~ An Excerpt from Wikipedia

More Arabian Proverbs & Sayings

• Arrogance diminishes wisdom.
• Four things come not back. The spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life and the neglected opportunity.
• Never will God suffer the reward to be lost, of those who do right.
• Nothing but a handful of dust will fill the eyes of man.
• There’s always tomorrow.
• Silence is the best answer to the stupid. The fool has his answer on the tip of his tongue.
• The awakening of a giant shakes the world.
• Close the door that brings in the wind and relax.
• A small house is enough room for a thousand friends.
• Man was created in a hurry.
• Laugh and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.
• When you have spoken the word, it reigns over you. When it is unspoken you reign over it.
• Hunger is an infidel.
• Make do with bread and butter until God can bring you jam.
• Give devil an inch and he will be a ruler.
• Do not stand in a place of danger trusting in miracles.
• Knowledge acquired as a child is more lasting than an engraving on stone.
• Eat whatever you like, but dress as others do.
• The house of a tyrant is a ruin.
• The man with no patience waits for daylight, and when it comes he’ll be blind.
• The absent are always in the wrong.
• Live near water, and ask not about sustenance.
• Do not delay today’s work for tomorrow.
• Determination is the key to everything.
• Be sure to have a controversial opinion, and men will talk about you.
• None but a mule denies his family.
• Act like you are an idiot and everyone will respect you.
• Obedience to a woman leads to hell.
• If the king says that it is night in the middle of the day, look up at the stars.
• He gets his passage for nothing and then winks at the captain’s wife.
• Experiences are the spectacles of intellect.
• A man’s worth depends on his two smallest organs: his heart and his tongue.
• Don’t pour away your water on the strength of a mirage.
• If you want to kill a snake, chop off its head.
• Beware of one who flatters unduly; he will also censure unjustly.
• Familiarity breeds contempt.
• Every day of your life is a page of your history.
• Beauty is power.
• Men laugh with their heart, women only with their mouth.
• Worry is the darkroom in which negatives are developed.
• Those who foretell the future lies, even if he tells the truth.
• Let the punishment fit the crime.
• There is no greater misfortune than your own.
• Anger begins with madness, but ends in regret.
• The word of the king is the king of words.
• Pay trust to whoever trusts you and do not betray who betrays you.
• He hit me, started to cry, and went straight to the judge to sue me.
• The dogs may bark but the caravan moves on.
• The liar’s mother is a virgin.
• Children are buttonholes that hold their parents together.
• Even the one-eyed man winks to women.
• One must eat to live, and not live to eat.
• A fat woman is a blanket for the winter.
• The angry hammer works off his fury on the steel.
• It’s all fate and chance.
• A man profits more by the sight of an idiot than by the orations of the learned.
• The gauge has over flown.
• What wise men suppose is worth more than the certainties of fools.
• Beware the levelheaded person if they’re angry.
• The barber learns to shave on the orphan’s face.
• A heart free from care is better than a full purse.
• The lion said: I am the best one to take care of my business.
• The soul will only be at rest when it stops hoping.
• Blind eyes see better than blind hearts.
• The first will get the credit, even if the second is better.
• A bird in the hand is better than ten on a tree.
• There has to be a first time for everything — even our most natural habits.
• All earthly goods we have only on loan.
• Man plans and God manages.
• Habit is the sixth sense that dominates the other five.
• A kind speech and forgiveness is better than alms followed by injury.
• When what you want doesn’t happen, learn to want what does.
• He fled from the rain and sat down under the waterspout.
• Lending nourishes bad feeling.
• Appetite furnishes the best sauce.
• You can always find good elements in the misfortune that strikes you.
• One is known by the company he keeps
• Measure your guilt, then stretch your legs.
• God gave the giraffe a long neck so that he would not have to bend the palm tree.
• Most people forget everything except being ungrateful.
• Any water in the desert will do.
• What comes with ease goes with ease.
• Necessity is the mother of invention.
• Don’t put a question mark where Allah puts a full stop.
• A fable is a bridge which leads to truth.
• In haste there is regret, but in patience and care there is peace and safety.
• The excess of one is the shortage of another.
• Think of the going out before you enter.
• A foolish man may be known by six things: Anger without cause, speech without profit, change without progress, inquiry without object, putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends.
• Nobody is perfect.
• The mind is for seeing, the heart is for hearing.
• Everything is small at the beginning and then grows; except trouble, which is big at the beginning and still grows.
• There is always something to learn from experimentation.
• Good deeds banish bad ones.
• Patience is beautiful.
• Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
• A secret is like a dove: when it leaves my hand it takes wing.
• Build with silver and cover with gold.
• An insult is but a short garment: it reveals the one who wears it.
• The key to everything is determination.
• No crowd ever waited at the gates of patience.
• More skillful than a silk worm.
• Silence is the sign of approval.
• You are striking cold iron.
• The doorstep weeps for forty days whenever a girl is born.
• Man proposes but God disposes
• Better make profit out of manure than losses with musk.
• A little spark can kindle a great fire.
• IF the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow.
• Every age has its book.
• Ask for your wife’s advice and then do the opposite.
• Everybody’s gathering the coals around his own bread.
• Beware the man who lavishes too much praise on you, he will later run you down.
• The devil tempts all men, but idle men tempt the devil.
• All kinds of fame belong partly to others.
• It is a sign of weakness just to let things happen.
• Experimentation is the greatest science.
• The eyes are of little use if the mind be blind.
• God helps them that help themselves.
• Eat less to sleep more.
• Distance equals disaffection.
• There are five ways in which to become wise: be silent, listen, remember, grow older and study.
• If a man’s mouth were silent, then another part would speak.
• A learned man without work is a cloud without rain.
• Unity is power.
• Follow the advice of the one who makes you cry, not from the one who makes you laugh.
• Don’t celebrate someone’s departing unless you know who will succeed him.
• In order to really love someone you must love him as though he was going to die tomorrow.
• The mother of someone who is killed can sleep; the mother of the murderer cannot.
• Once you have found your rhythm, you will then know your God.
• He who looks up too much gets a pain in the neck.
• Let the sword decide only after the plan has failed.
• Never sit in the place of a man who can say to you, “Rise.”.
• The dawn does not come twice to awaken a man.
• The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
• One coin in the money-box makes more noise than when it is full.
• A small tumbledown house is better than a communal palace.
• Haste is the invention of the devil.
• Marriage is like a besieged fortress: those who are outside want to come in, and those already in want to be out.
• They have sowed the seed of the word “tomorrow” and it has not germinated.
• Who does not go with you, go with him.
• Whoever knew you when you were small will not respect you when you’re big.
• At the narrow passage there is no brother and no friend.
• Excuses are always mixed with lies.
• He that counts his friend’s mistakes will be abandoned by him.
• Heaven on earth is to be found on horseback, reading books and between a woman’s breasts.
• The sinning is the best part of repentance.
• If you have given away much of your wealth, then you have given a little of your heart.
• With care do you realize your opportunities.
• Do not eat your bread on somebody else’s table.
• God grant us no neighbor with two eyes.
• Believe what you see and lay aside what you hear.
• He who loves thinks that the others are blind; the others think that he is crazy.
• A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain.
• The grave is our mother.
• Lies are accepted once, not twice.
• Every sun has to set.
• A poor man would like to have some fun, but he cannot find the right place.
• Many are the roads that do not lead to the heart.
• Misfortune is easier to bear if you share it with many others.
• Seven trades but no luck.
• When you heard that a mountain was moved, believe it; but when you hear that someone changed his character do not believe it.
• The smarter you are, the less you speak.
• Time is the master of him who has no master.
• The worst things in life are: To be in bed and sleep not, to want for one who comes not, to try to please and please not.
• Sinning is the best part of repentance.
• He who kneels before Allah can stand before anyone.
• Save something for the rainy day.
• If you have an opinion, you better be determined.
• The benefits you get become the debts you owe to others.
• The friend in tight times.
• Insults must be written in sand and compliments carved in stone.
• He that plants thorns must never expect to gather roses.
• When praying, don’t give Allah instructions, just report for duty.
• When danger approaches, sing to it.
• In seeking honey expect the stings of bees.
• The love of money and the love of learning rarely meet.
• There are some words that look like salted jam.
• Do not tell secrets in front of servants.
• Do not drink poison to quench a thirst.
• The garlic complained to the onion, “You stink!”
• Surely the worst of the evils are the evils of the learned, and surely the best of good is the good of the learned.
• You cannot carry two watermelons in one hand.
• An old lion will be mocked by the dogs.
• Truth is a haven.
• Example is better than law.
• If power is for sale, sell your mother to buy it. You can always buy her back again.
• Great care is no defense against Fate.
• He who does not shield himself from vilification receives it.
• A thousand curses never tore a shirt.
• A good orator makes us see with our ears.
• Do not tell a friend anything you would conceal from an enemy..
• Search knowledge though it be in China.
• Setting the conditions before you make an agreement is better than having an argument in the middle of the work.
• In the presence of Fate, the physician becomes a fool.
• Opinion comes before the bravery of the braves.
• He who lives in a glass house should not throw stones.
• Laughing without a reason is rude.
• Play alone and you’re bound to win.
• If you count your friend’s mistakes, he will desert you.
• If you saw the fangs of lion, don’t think the lion is smiling.
• You will get no nourishment from the flesh of a woman.
• God is not kind to those who are not kind to others.
• He who has been bitten by a snake is scared of a rope on the ground.
• His bread is on his fire and his eyes are on his neighbor.
• Too many cooks spoil the broth.
• The cure for bad times is patience.
• Avoid things that will require an apology.
• Death rides a fast camel.
• Be patient and you’ll get what you want.
• A woman’s belly is a garden with many kinds of fruit.
• He who would visit a vice, never has far to travel.
• A woman’s mosque is her home.
• Money can build roads in the sea.
• If begging should unfortunately be your lot, knock at the large gates only.
• Silence is a brother of delight.
• Give your friends your money and your blood, but don’t justify yourself. Your enemies won’t believe it and your friends won’t need it.
• Moustaches hide the imperfections of the mouth.
• If you know then it’s a disaster, and if you don’t know the it’s a greater disaster.
• He who walks through a field of onions, will smell like an onion.
• A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.
• The best part of repentance is a little sinning.
• Have mercy on those in the world, and those who are in heaven will have mercy on you.
• Be careful of your enemy once and of your friend a thousand times, for a double crossing friend knows more evil.
• Falseness lasts an hour, the truth lasts until the end of time.
• Whoever lives within himself is burning with love.
• Easy come, easy go
• You are like a tree, giving your shade to the outside.
• Words from the heart reach the heart; words from the mouth reach the ear.
• Throw a lucky man into the sea, and he will come up with a fish in his mouth.
• Tomorrow is close if you have patience.
• Fear not the man who fears God.
• An eloquent rooster crows as soon as it comes out of the egg.
• It’s better to avoid mistakes altogether than do something that you should apologize for after.
• He who wants to sell his honor will always find a buyer.
• Love lasts as long as does the reproach.
• He whose hand in fire isn’t like him whose hand is in water.
• Avoid the company of liars, but if you can’t, don’t believe them.
• Every dog is a great barker at the door of his own house.
• I hear noise but see no grinding
• He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.
• Look and keep silent, and if you are eating meat, tell the world it’s fish.
• He who eats alone chokes alone.
• The eye doesn’t go higher than the brow.
• He, who angers you, controls you.
• Kiss the hand of your enemy if you cannot chop it off: Envy has no rest.
• It is good to know the truth and to speak the truth. It is even better to know the truth and speak about palm trees.
• Do not ridicule the thin-bearded when you yourself have no beard.
• A good man is one who rejoices in the well-being of others.
• He who is a slave of truth is a free man.
• It’s better to fix what you have than wait to get what you don’t have.
• If you don’t know where you are going, look back to where you’ve come from.
• He with no ears gets the earrings!
• Forgetting is the plague of knowledge.
• Know each other as if your were brothers; negotiate deals as if you were strangers to each other.
• A borrowed cloak does not keep one warm.
• A known mistake is better than an unknown truth.
• The monkey looks into the mirror and sees a gazelle.
• Every head has its own kind of headache.
• Keep your friends close – hold your enemies closer.
• Ride the tributaries to reach the sea.
• The words of tongue should have three gate keepers.
• United we stand, divided we fall.
• Be wary around your enemy once, and your friend a thousand times. A double crossing friend knows more about what harms you.
• Everyone is critical of the flaws of others, but blind to their own.
• Fate loves a rebel.
• The ass went seeking for horns and lost his ears.
• If you are a friend of the captain, you can wipe your hands on the sail.
• Sometimes even the intestine and the stomach disagree.
• Don’t think you are eloquent just because a fool applauds you.
• Two scorpions living in the same hole will get along better than two sisters in the same house.
• If I had two loaves of bread, I would sell one and buy hyacinths, for they would feed my soul.
• If man’s mouth was silent, then another part would speak.
• So long as I can keep a secret it is my prisoner. If I let it slip then I am its prisoner.
• If you hear that a mountain has moved, believe; but if you hear that a man has changed his character, believe it not.
• Death was afraid of him because he had the heart of a lion.
• Where there is a will there is a way. Where there is no will there is an excuse.
• Experience is the best teacher.
• Show no fear to the man who picks up a big stone.
• Send a wise man; don’t advise him.
• When God shuts one door, he opens another.
• He with gas in his belly never rests.
• He who sees the calamity of other people finds his own calamity light.
• The whisper of a pretty girl can be heard further than the roar of a lion.
• He who steals an egg will steal a camel.
• Spirit is the sword and experience the sharpening stone.
• Love is blind.
• A man cannot be a good physician if he has never been sick himself.
• If your motive is good, a farting donkey won’t harm you.
• How can the person who is eating dates prohibit the eating of dates?
• God sells knowledge for labor — honor for risk.
• When you die, your sister’s tears will dry as time goes on, your widow’s tears will end in another’s arms, but your mother will mourn you until the day she dies.
• Never celebrate someone’s leaving, until you know who will succeed him.
• He who doesn’t know the falcon roasts it.
• Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade.
• More than one war has been caused by a single word.
• A lazy man will be an astrologer.
• It is easier not to commit a sin than to repent it.
• A tree begins with a seed.
• Bravery without intelligence is not bravery.
• If you become a prince and I become a prince then who rides the donkeys?
• Ask the experienced rather than the learned.
• War is a disaster for winner and loser alike.
• Hunger is the best cook.
• Conversation is like making love; the man is the question, the woman the answer, and the union of both will bear fruit.
• Seek Knowledge from the cradle to the grave.
• You can’t clap with one hand.
• Charity makes no decrease in property.
• Live together like brothers and do business like strangers.
• A sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to our steps as we walk the tightrope of life.
• It’s better to be a free dog than a caged lion.
• Send your son to the marketplace and see with whom he associates.
• Talent without skill is like a desert without an oasis.
• The poor always smell.
• If the wind blows, ride it.
• Every village has certain drawbacks to it.
• A kind word can attract even the snake from its nest.
• If there were no tears, our ribs would burn.
• Your fingers aren’t of an equal length.
• If the herders are a lot the sheep will get lost.
• The chameleon does not leave one tree until he is sure of another.
• So long as the pot is boiling, friendship will stay warm.
• He that has no money has no friends.
• Peace is only possible after war.
• The worst of men in God’s view on resurrection day is the learned who doesn’t benefit others with his learning.
• Spurs that are too sharp make even the mule rear.
• He who is devoid of kindness is devoid of grace.
• Ask advice of an ignorant man and he will think you are his enemy.
• When a door opens not to your knock, consider your reputation.
• You won’t gain knowledge by drinking ink.
• Don’t say its wheat until you harvest it.
• What’s in the well the bucket gets out.
• Planning is half of living.
• Proverbs are the lamp of speech.
• Wishing does not make a poor man rich.
• If you have never seen evil, look closely at yourself some time.
• Time is money.
• Wrath begins in madness and ends in repentance.
• Unfortunate is the man who has no fingernails to scratch his head with.
• Once you have decided to hit someone, then hit them hard because the retribution will be the same whether you hit hard or not.
• The knife of the family does not cut.
• I came to you with help and you became a pharaoh on me.
• Pardon is the choicest flower of victory.
• Arrogance is a weed that grows mostly on a dunghill.
• Advice given in the midst of a crowd is loathsome.
• Time is like a sword; if you don’t cut it it’ll cut you.
• If a rich man ate a snake, they would say it was because of his wisdom; if a poor man ate it, they would say it was because of his stupidity.
• Good to sell knowledge for labor, honor for risk.
• If man be a river, then woman will be a bridge.
• When the judge’s mule dies, everyone goes to the funeral; when the judge himself dies, no one does.
• Only the tent pitched by your own hands will stand.
• It may be a fire today — tomorrow it will be ashes.
• Those who argue with each other on the highway will often make up in the lane.
• He who has approved of wrongdoing is as guilty as he who has committed it.
• A man’s capacity is the same as his breadth of vision.
• Why should the heavens care about the barking of dogs?
• You only own that which you have earned.
• Diligence is a great teacher.
• When a rich man wants children, he gets money, when a poor man wants money, he gets children.
• Visit rarely, and you will be more loved.
• Men learn little from success, but much from failure.
• Never postpone today’s work till tomorrow.
• An imbecile can manage his own affairs better than a wise man the affairs of other people.
• Plan ahead It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
• Choose your neighbor before your house and your companion before the road.
• He left us and we rejoiced; then an even more unbearable person came.
• Examine what is said, not who is speaking.
• Lack of intelligence is the greatest poverty.
• Mistrust before you trust.
• The different sorts of madness are innumerable.
• Call someone your lord and he’ll sell you in the slave market.
• Attend funerals avoid weddings.
• If you cannot take things by the head, then take them by the tail.
• Time is gold.
• Only he who understands is really sad.
• Wisdom consists of ten parts: nine parts silence, and one part a few words.
• If someone says “There is a wedding ceremony in the clouds,” then the women would soon arrive with their ladders.
• Only death itself can end our hope.
• He that has long legs will go far.
• In the small lanes there are no brothers or friends.
• Any wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend.
• Without the companionship even paradise would be boring.
• It is better to cut off the head that has no pride.
• Many wars have been caused by a single word.
• The fire is winter’s fruit.
• If you are offered a bull, do not ask how much milk he will give.
• Give a man some cloth and he’ll ask for some lining.
• Birds align with grain, but not with the stick.
• Never give the devil a ride He will always want to drive.
• One hand cannot clap.
• Do not buy either the moon or the news, for in the end they will both come out.
• Men fear, but time fears the pyramids.
• Rewards fit deeds.
• Your tongue is like a horse — if you take care of it, it takes care of you; if you treat it badly, it treats you badly.
• The young goose is a good swimmer.
• Do good things and throw them in the sea.
• The stupid might want to help you, but they just ended up hurting you.
• A mule can go to Mecca, but it will not come back as a pilgrim.
• Tomorrow is another day.
• A good deed dies when it is spoken about.
• Repetitive visits cause boredom.
• I came to the place of my birth and cried, “The friends of my youth, where are they?” And echo answered, “Where are they?”
• A seeker of knowledge and a seeker of money never meet.
• Good qualities never cancel out the bad, just as sugar is no antidote for poison.
• The absent may have an excuse.
• A mule who goes in search of a fine set of antlers, will come back with his ears cut off:
• Sunshine without rain makes a desert.
• God bless him who pays visits — short visits.
• Love makes a man both blind and deaf.
• Hit the iron while it’s still hot.
• God is with those who patiently persevere.
• Dawn does not come twice to awaken a man.
• Beauty never travels in a group.
• In every village, there is a path that leads to the mill.
• Visit infrequently, and you will get closer.
• It makes no sense to try to forge the iron whilst it is still cold.
• Judge a man by the reputation of his enemies.