Basque Proverbs

Sayings of Basque origin

• Let us have little, but let us always have enough.
• Let’s agree to disagree
• Money is the best of servants, but the worst of bosses.
• Not all truths are good to say.
• Not having enough is like not having anything.
• A good listener needs few words.
• A promise is a debt, it’s always been said.
• By falling, one learns to walk.
• Doing nothing and doing useless work are the same.
• Don’t say as much as you know, and don’t eat as much as you can.
• Earth belongs to the brave but heaven to those who deserve it.
• Far from the eyes, far from the heart.
• For many, the truth hurts.
• God didn’t make even the fingers all the same.
• God is a busy worker but loves to be helped.
• He who doesn’t want to hear unpleasant things, shouldn’t say unpleasant things.
• If you do no wrong, you need not be afraid.
• If you have much, you will need much.
• If you hear something and you don’t object, people will assume that you agree.
• If you say anything you want, you will hear things you don’t want to.
• In an empty house, there’s nothing but anger.
• It’s better to have a good reputation, than to be rich.
• It’s better to have one than be waiting for two.
• Lazy people are always busy.
• Old people know much; they were taught by necessity.
• One eye is enough for the seller, but one hundred is not too many for the buyer.
• One may recover a lost sheep, but not wasted time.
• One who knows, tells everything one knows.
• Talking is easy, doing is hard.
• The choosy one ends up with the ordinary.
• The hand of the stranger is heavy.
• The lazy person has no work and has no time.
• The lost sheep may be recovered, the lost time cannot.
• The needle dresses people but stays naked itself.
• The one who loves you will make you cry, the one who hates you will make you laugh.
• The one who wants everything perfect, often gets just the opposite.
• The stupid find relief in the suffering of others.
• The sun shines equally on the good and the bad.
• There is never trust without loss.
• There is no bread without pain.
• Those who don’t look forward, stay behind.
• Time flies when you are among friends.
• Well begun, is half done.
• What is in the heart, comes to the tongue.
• What is seen at home is what the child learns.
• With a good friend the hours are short.
• With the passing of time, all things are forgotten.
• You know much if you know how to live.
• You will have a sad end, bird, if you don’t make your nest while you’re still young.
• What the wolf does pleases his mate.
• When the fox is engaging you in conversation, keep an eye on your chicken.
• When there is, spend lavishly, and when there isn’t, that’s life.
• Whoever crossed the river at the fordable point, knows how deep the river is.
• Time goes by, and we go with it.
• To do nothing or to do useless work is the same thing.
• Waiting is futile for whomever wants to kiss someone’s backside.
• There is no point in offering a helping hand to someone who wants to drown.
• Those who have their tail made of straw are afraid of fire.
• The thread must be longer than the needle.
• The tree falls towards the side it’s leaning.
• The truth is bitter and unpleasant.
• The wolf and the dog agree about the goat — which together they eat.
• The woman who takes a wolf for a husband is always looking into the wood.
• There is never a lack of food for the lazy person, nor of work for the industrious.
• The priest’s pot is small but tasty.
• The satiated cannot see the hungry.
• The sickness of the body is the cure of the mind.
• The small sheep, always a lamb.
• The old fox sheds its old hair, but not its old habits.
• The old sayings tell no lies.
• The most painful insult is the one that’s true.
• The one who has a lot of time to spare, is the one who always arrives late.
• The closest to the church are the farthest from paradise.
• The craftsman has a bad roof.
• The debts made to one’s mother are never paid.
• The eagle needs feathers, and the wren does too.
• The lazy person has no work, but has no time for anything else either.
• Say little about what you know, and don’t say anything about what you don’t know.
• Sleep with a woman and she will make sure you wake up.
• Telling the truth, you may lose your friends.
• My dog slaps you with his tail and bites you with his teeth.
• My skin is closer to me than my shirt is.
• Old bachelors and old maids are either too good or too bad.
• Not able to take revenge on the donkey; take it out on the saddle.
• More people are threatened than are beaten up.
• In other places dogs go barefoot too.
• Iron must be hammered when it’s hot.
• It is the mountains that do not move to help one another; but one man surely comes to the help of another.
• It is useless to hurry, once the water has already gone by.
• It’s not useful closing the barn door after the horse has been stolen.
• Laziness leads many people astray.
• Life without friends means death without neighbors.
• Health is an asset without equal.
• Honey is bitter for a sore mouth.
• A bleating sheep eats no grass.
• A dog which belongs to two houses dies of hunger.
• A face that never laughs betrays an evil heart.
• A father doing good things will have a similar son.
• A foreign land is a land of wolves.
• A lot of donkeys means a lot of hay.
• A silver hammer can open an iron gate.
• A thrifty father begets a squandering son.
• All things black are not coal.
• An imaginary mill produces no flour.
• Another’s mother is good, but our own is much better.
• Beware of women with beards and men without beards.
• Empty houses are full of noises.
• Eyes that don’t see don’t cry.
• God is good, but not crazy.
• Flatterers and traders are related.

The Basque are an indigenous ethnic group who primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country, a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France. ~ More

Basque is a language isolate ancestral to the Basque people, who are indigenous to and mainly inhabit the Basque Country.