Sayings of Belgian origin
The word that is heard perishes, but the letter that is written remains.
A tax collector is best hung on Sunday.
Even the Priest was a thief when gold was left out.
Money buys cherries.
Truth seldom finds a home.
Don’t use another person’s mouth unless it has been lent to you.
To die in the season of plague brings no honor.
In the end a needle weighs heavy.
Experience keeps a dear school.
The bee, from her industry in the summer, eats honey all the winter.
The horse must graze where it is tethered.
Who sieves too much keeps the rubbish.
Those who counsel do not pay.
What you say when you’re drunk should have been thought about beforehand.
One spot stains the whole dress.
Who being respected, is destitute.
Children have a hair of their father.
Life is a muddle, friendship is what sorts it out.
Proverbs are the library of history.
He who arrives too late finds the plate turned over.
Weeds never perish.
Only the undertaker chortles in the time of plague.
Where there is accidental death, there is the devil’s own henchman at work.
If you don’t use your head, you’ll use your pocketbook.
A philosopher enlightens the pathway .
The Kingdom of Belgium
Belgium is a sovereign state in Western Europe. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi) and has a population of about 11 million people. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups: the Dutch-speaking, mostly Flemish community, which constitutes about 59% of the population, and the French-speaking, mostly Walloon population, which comprises 41% of all Belgians. Additionally, there is a small group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area, and bordering Germany. (An excerpt from Wikipedia)
The City of Brussels or alternatively Bruxelles-Ville is the largest municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region, and the de jure capital of Belgium. The City of Brussels covers most of the Region’s centre, as well as northern outskirts where it borders municipalities in Flanders.
More Belgian Proverbs & Sayings
Honor is better than honors.
Experience is the comb that nature gives us when we are bald.
The beautiful is less what one sees than what one dreams.
While the sheep bleats it loses its mouthful.
It’s no use waiting for your ship to come in, unless you’ve sent one out.
He who does not wish for little things does not deserve big things.
The beggar may sing before the thief.
Happy nations have no history.
The money lender is brother to the tax collector.
We have quite enough to do weeding our own garden.
Love is born of faith, lives on hope and dies of charity.
Experience is the father of wisdom.
Tolerance when mocked is often transformed into anger.
Don’t make waves.
God heals, but the doctor gets paid.
The national anthem of Belgium
The Brabançonne is The national anthem of Belgium.
Belgian National Anthem ( English Lyrics):
O Belgium – O mother dear –
To you we stretch our hearts and arms,
With blood to spill for you, O fatherland!
We swear with one cry – You shall live!
You shall live, so great and beautiful,
And your invincible unity
Shall have for device immortal –
The King, and Law, and Liberty!
Shall have for device immortal –
The King, and Law, and Liberty!
O dear Belgium, O holy land of our fathers –
Our soul and our hearts are devoted to you!
Accept our strength and the blood in our veins,
Be our goal, in work and struggle.
Prosper, O land, in unbreakable unity;
Always be yourself and serve no other,
Faithful to the word that you may speak boldly,
For King, for Freedom and for Law!
Faithful to the word that you may speak boldly,
For King, for Freedom and for Law!
O dear country, O Belgium’s soil,
To you our hearts, our hands to you,
To you our blood, O native land,
We swear to you, O fatherland!
So gladly bloom in beauty full,
Into what freedom has taught you to be,
And evermore shall sing your sons:
To Law and King and Freedom, hail!
And evermore shall sing your sons:
To Law and King and Freedom, hail!
O dear Belgium, O holy land of our fathers –
Our soul and our hearts are devoted to you!
With blood to spill for you, O fatherland!
We swear with one cry – You shall live!
So gladly bloom in beauty full,
Into what freedom has taught you to be,
And evermore shall sing your sons:
The King, and Law, and Liberty!
Faithful to the word that you may speak boldly,
For King, for Freedom and for Law!
To Law and King and Freedom, hail!
The King, and Law, and Liberty!