Russian Proverbs

Sayings of Russian origin

The Russian Federation

Russia is a sovereign country in Eurasia.At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), it is the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth’s inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with over 144 million people at the end of March 2016. The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern; about 77% of the population live in European Russia. (Source)

Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 12.2 million residents within the city limits, and 17.1 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city.
Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world; other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Ufa, and Kazan.

Russia’s 160 ethnic groups speak some 100 languages. According to the 2002 Census, 142.6 million people speak Russian, followed by Tatar with 5.3 million and Ukrainian with 1.8 million speakers. Russian is the only official state language, but the Constitution gives the individual republics the right to establish their own state languages in addition to Russian.

Proverbs from Russia

Even the sword doesn’t cut the head of the one who confesses.
If God listened to every shepherd’s curse, our sheep would all be dead.
There may be deep bottoms in still waters.
Once you have fallen into the water, you’re not scared of water any more.
Habit is a shirt that we wear till death.
Bad news doesn’t rest peacefully.
A boat stands firmer with two anchors.
When Anger and Revenge get married, their daughter is called Cruelty.
Live and scratch — when you’re dead the itching will stop.
A day is long, but a lifetime is short.
The bear dances but the tamer collects the money.
The snail is coming, who knows when it arrives.
A wooden bed is better than a golden coffin.
Two deaths will not happen, but one is inevitable.
As long as a child does not cry, it does not matter what pleases it.
A good-looking man is pleasant to look at, but it is easier to live with an amusing one.
Judges and physicians kill with impunity.
The more you know the less will you sleep.
Keep your ears wider and your mouth narrower.
They come into the courtroom in a suit and leave with no trousers.
What fell off the cart is as good as gone.
Paper will endure anything.
Don’t praise your furnace when the house is cold.
Do not make elephant out of fly.
Make a friend of the wolf, but keep your axe ready.
Even the sword doesn’t cut the head of the one who confesses.
If God listened to every shepherd’s curse, our sheep would all be dead.
There may be deep bottoms in still waters.
Once you have fallen into the water, you’re not scared of water any more.
Habit is a shirt that we wear till death.
Bad news doesn’t rest peacefully.
A boat stands firmer with two anchors.
When Anger and Revenge get married, their daughter is called Cruelty.
Live and scratch — when you’re dead the itching will stop.
A day is long, but a lifetime is short.
The bear dances but the tamer collects the money.
The snail is coming, who knows when it arrives.
A wooden bed is better than a golden coffin.
Two deaths will not happen, but one is inevitable.
As long as a child does not cry, it does not matter what pleases it.
A good-looking man is pleasant to look at, but it is easier to live with an amusing one.
Judges and physicians kill with impunity.
The more you know the less will you sleep.
Keep your ears wider and your mouth narrower.
They come into the courtroom in a suit and leave with no trousers.
What fell off the cart is as good as gone.
Paper will endure anything.
Don’t praise your furnace when the house is cold.
Do not make elephant out of fly.
Make a friend of the wolf, but keep your axe ready.
Forbidden fruit is sweet.
Seven troubles – one response.
Where goes a horse with its hoof, there goes a crayfish with its pincer.
In a crush, yet without resentment.
All are not cooks who walk with long knives.
Warm a frozen snake and it will be the first to bite you.
Clever father, clever daughter; clever mother, clever son.
What you go looking for, you will find.
He is brave when fighting against sheep, and when fighting against a brave man he’s a sheep himself.
Do not make jokes that cost more than a ruble.
The newborn baby yells; you die in silence.
The night walks the same road as the dream.
Don’t cast beads in front of pigs.
Those who love you will make you weep; those who hate you will make you laugh.
An old man telling lies is like a rich man stealing.
Who falls in the water will hold on to the foam to save himself.
Deprive a mirror of its silver and even the czar won’t see his face.
Be wise, but pretend to be ignorant.
The wolf can always be hired very cheap as a shepherd.
Mistrust is an axe in the tree of love.
Even an eagle will not fly higher than the sun.
What men usually ask for when they pray to God is, that two and two may not make four.
One good daughter is worth seven sons.
Invite a peasant to your table and he’ll put his feet on it.
A kind word is like a Spring day.
A clever speech is pleasant to listen to.
No-one goes to another monastery with their own charter.
The titmouse boasted of putting the sea on the fire..
They bow to you when borrowing, you bow to them when collecting.
A silent man is not a conquered man.
Pray for revenge, and God will turn a deaf ear.
Thanks to one small candle the whole of Moscow burns.
A net will catch more than a pole.
Take the bull by the horns.
Don’t wade into a river without knowing a ford.
One shouldn’t beat the one who fell.
Live for a century — learn for a century.
There is plenty of sound in an empty barrel.
What used to be – is now gone and overgrown with grass.
Do not look for trouble – trouble will find you itself.
The devil boasted of ruling the whole world, but God didn’t give him power over even the pig.
A woman’s tongue is longer than her hair.
You get used to everything — even hell.
Every cricket must know its hearth
God wanted to punish mankind, so he created lawyers.
Clemency is the support of justice.
One fisherman recognizes another from afar.
Rotten straw can harm a healthy horse.
A word of kindness is better than a fat pie.
First the stable, then the cow.
He who offers his back should not complain if it is beaten.
The wolf is beaten not for being grey, but for having eaten a sheep.
The shovel insults the poker.
These are just flowers; berries will come soon.
Once burned by milk you will blow on cold water.
Who lives in exile finds that spring has no charm.
In another person’s eye one can notice even a mote, but in one’s own, cannot see even a log.
Hypocrites kick with their hind feet while licking with their tongues.
When you are at home, even the walls help you.
An old loan repaid is like finding something new.
It is unpleasant to go alone, even to be drowned.
After all, every man is the son of a woman.
Friendship is friendship but service is service.
Tears come more often from the eyes than from the heart.
Envy sees the sea but not the rocks.
The peasant sweats and the nobleman is always right.
If men could foresee the future, they would still behave as they do now.
A drop hollows out a stone.
If everyone were a gentleman, who would make the mills work?
It is bread that keeps one warm, not fur.
A spoken word is not a sparrow. Once it flies out, you can’t catch it.
When a needle sees a dagger, she cries “O sister!”
The offender never forgives.
Morning is wiser than the evening.
A field in common is always ravaged by bears.
Another’s cow can moo, yours had best stay silent.
The tears of strangers are only water.
Not every glittering thing is gold.
A proverb can’t be judged.
You have summer and you have winter — why, then, be in a hurry?
You cannot break a wall with your forehead.
A lizard on a cushion will still seek leaves.
The coat is quite new, only the holes are old.
Rather a bitter truth than a sweet lie.
Grey hair into beard, devil into rib.
Let everyone pick his own nose.
God likes trinity.
Not everyone who has a cowl on is a monk.
Close to the Tsar, close to death.
Any wise man has enough of simplicity.
Complacent fool harms worse than enemy.
Partnership is an invention of the devil.
If you cut it, you won’t get it back.
When he mounts his horse he forgets God; when he dismounts, he forgets his horse.
The blind cannot see — the proud will not.
The rich would have to eat money, but luckily the poor provide food.
Each time it’s different.
Love and eggs are best when they are fresh.
Not the place adorns the man, but a man adorns the place.
The future is for those who know how to wait.
Ask a lot, but take what is offered.
Hunger is not your aunt .
Better to turn back than to lose your way.
I ran from the wolf but ran into a bear.
Truth is spoken from the toddler’s mouth; From the mouth of babes
With company, even death loses its sting.
Bread is the head of everything.
The horses of hope gallop, but the asses of experience go slowly.
It is not the horse that draws the cart, but the oats.
Don’t swap horses when crossing the stream.
It’s not gods who make pots.
The dog learns to swim when the water reaches his ears.
One road for the fugitive and a hundred for the pursuer.
Prey runs into a trapper.
How echo is prompted, it will bounce back.
A tale is told quickly, but the job is done slowly.
If given – take it; if beaten – run away.
Jesus Christ was crucified by public opinion.
I sell it for what I bought it.
No year has two summers.
Don’t boast when you start out, but when you get there.
The further into the woods, the more firewood you’ll encounter .
You don’t learn anything from buying, but you do from selling.
Give him a fingernail, he will ask for the forearm.
Bury truth in a golden coffin, it will break it open.
The one who pulls a cart is urged on.
The hammer shatters glass but forges steel.
Living your life is not like crossing a meadow.
When death is there, dying is over.
To ask is no sin, and to be refused is no calamity.
Patience and work will fray through anything.
Eggs cannot teach a hen.
You never know what you can do till you try.
They don’t swing fists when the fight is over.
The wife is twice precious only; when led into the house, and when taken out.
Seven axes lie together, two distaffs apart.
In a rickety stable the cow produces no milk.
All lay loads on a willing horse.
The wolf is not afraid of the sheepdog, but he is of his chain.
If you rush things, you’ll only make others laugh.
It’s better to be a cripple than always sitting down.
Make yourself a sheep and the wolf is ready.
Seek the brave in prison and the stupid among the clergy.
A drowning man grabs even a straw.
Every sandpiper praises his own swamp.
The wise man says “I am looking for truth”; and the fool, “I have found truth.”
The scythe has hit a stone.
Our eyes are our enemies.
If the fool has a hunchback no one remarks about it; if a wise man has a boil everybody talks about it.
Words are silver, silence is gold.
If only youth would know, if only old age were able.
Lie, but don’t overdo it.
A man without a wife is like a man in winter without a fur cap.
If all of us take hold of it together, it won’t feel heavy.
Trust in God, but mind your own business.
Give a naked man a piece of cloth and he will say it is too thick.
The moon gives us light but no heat.
You must chop down the tree that gives too much or too little shade.
You cannot please everybody.
A cat always knows whose meat it eats.
Studying is light; not studying is darkness.
Desire is worse than compulsion.
You can best shoot an eagle with an arrow made from its own feathers.
Do not look for further good from good.
A horse has four legs, but still stumbles.
The past is for God, the future for the Tsars.
A chatterbox is a treasure for a spy.
One son is no son, two sons is no son, but three sons is a son.
Good brotherhood is the best wealth.
Bad luck is fertile.
A bad peace is better than a good quarrel.
Fate can’t be avoided.
Tell God the truth, but give money to the judge.
You can’t sew buttons on your neighbor’s mouth.
A single man in a field is not a warrior.
A golden handshake convinces even the most skeptical judge.
You’ll learn from those you hang out with.
Gossip needs no carriage.
No one is dragged to heaven by the hair.
Hands wash each other, a thief covers another thief .
Visiting is good, but home is better.
It worked on paper, but we’ve forgotten about ravines .
Many who have gold in the house are looking for copper outside.
If you take a day trip, take a week’s supply of bread.
They wait three years for what was promised.
Work makes you into a hunchback and then rich.
A tale is soon told; a deed is not soon done.
You don’t milk a cow with your hands in your pockets.
My tongue is my enemy.
If you called yourself a milk-mushroom — get into the basket!
Water never loses its way.
Advertising is the driving force of business.
Truth does not need many words.
One never tires working for oneself.
A magpie brought it on its tail.
He need not search his pockets for words.
Even one matters in the battlefield.
The peasant will not cross himself before it begins to thunder.
A cross-eyed Tsar, one-eyed ministers, blind subjects.
You cannot throw a word out of a song.
They choose lesser of two evils.
There is no law written for fools.
There are two kinds of Chinese: those who give wine and those who drink it.
Ride slower, you’ll get further.
Fishermen recognize each other from far away.
You can bend an alder-tree, if you do it gradually.
In a deal there are two fools: the one who asks too much and the one who asks too little.
Another city – another temper.
With seven nurses the child loses its eye.
Envy can breed swans from bad duck eggs.
When you meet a man, you judge him by his clothes; when you leave, you judge him by his heart.
One day before you is better than ten years behind you.
God is always where we don’t look for him.
Good fortune wears a pretty dress but its underclothes do not bear investigation.
A sin of gold is followed by a punishment of lead.
He who is frightened of a sparrow will never sow barley.
Vodka is the aunt of wine.
Forgiveness is a pillar of justice.
Every seed knows its time.
A clever head, but given to foolishness.
You can’t drive straight on a twisting lane.
There are no friends in tastes and colors.
Old age is not a joy, but death is not a gain.
Still water undermines the bank.
The stargazer’s toe is often stubbed.
For him who does not believe in signs, there is no way to live in the world.
Big in body, but small in deeds.
Looking at a tree see its fruit; looking at a man see his deeds.
In the garden of time grows the flower of consolation.
The nights are short for him who married late in life.
Not for village, not for town.
Law is a flag and gold is the wind that makes it wave.
There is no truth in feet.
Love has its own language, but marriage falls back on the local dialect.
Even in the ashes there will be a few sparks.
You can’t escape your fate even with a horse.
Two boots make a pair.
If you are a host to your guest, be a host to his dog also.
One doesn’t shear naked sheep.
Poverty is not a sin, it’s worse than that.
Death carries on its shoulders a heavy Tsar just as easily as a light beggar.
There will be trouble if the cobbler starts making pies.
A woman’s hair is long, and her mind short.
If age and experience came at birth, We would have neither youth nor mirth.
An indispensable thing never has much value.
Lambskin is not worth currying.
Neither fish nor meat.
Work is afraid of a skilled worker.
Honor goes to God; the priests get the bacon.
Fear the law not the judge.
Until you have smoked out the bees, you can’t eat the honey.
A friendly word is like a spring day.
Simplicity is worse than thievery.
Success and rest don’t sleep together.
Strike while the iron is hot.
The wolves are sated, and the sheep are intact.
There is no repentance after death.
One’s own shirt is closer to the body.
Honest work won’t let you live in a stone palace.
Where something is thin, that’s where it tears.
It’s better to be known as a rascal than a fool.
Wine causes guilt.
Regretting the past is like chasing after the wind.
Men who watch their fortune grow find their houses too small.
Give your children too much freedom and you lose your own.
Trust, but verify.
The castle gates will always open for gold-laden donkeys.
He who doesn’t risk never gets to drink champagne.
Eternal peace lasts until the next war.
One should count chicks in autumn.
If your heart is a rose, then your mouth will speak perfumed words.
Meanness looks through one eye only, ambition is blind.
A nightingale doesn’t feed on songs.
There is no example for an unjust court.
Drink but be an expert in your business
To keep a new friend, never break with the old.
If you make a fool pray to God, he will hurt his forehead and other people’s toes.
Why marry, when your neighbor’s wife is ready to go to bed with you?
Time makes the best healer.
It is good to pay with other people’s money.
Death is not found behind mountains but right behind our shoulders.
The woman had no trouble, so she bought a piglet.
What’s on sober’s mind, is on drunk’s tongue.
The river is flat but the banks are steep.
A girl never grows into a lady.
Death does not take the old but the ripe.
You cannot write in the chimney with charcoal.
No one can take two skins from one ox.
Men will not be fortunate without a helping hand from misfortune.
A bad dancer always has trouble with his balls.
Tell me who’s your friend and I’ll tell you who you are.
A jug that has been mended lasts two hundred years.
Wisdom is born; stupidity is learned.
If the pocket is empty, the judge is deaf.
Only grave will cure the hunchback.
I’m not me, and this horse isn’t mine.
Everything tastes bitter to him with gall in his mouth.
There’s no harm in wine; it’s drunkenness that is at fault.
Where necessity speaks it demands.
If a poor man finds a penny, it is probably a false one.
Poverty is a sin that the rich never forgive.
‘Tis a hard winter when one wolf eats another.
Better late than never.
Small children give you headache; big children heartache.
One can’t spoil porridge with butter.
The lonely person is at home everywhere.
They use a wedge to knock out a wedge.
Eternity makes room for a salty cucumber.
Whoever wants honey must breed bees.
God doesn’t give more beards than soap.
For every one with a plow — there’s seven with a spoon.
If the fool ties a knot , even a clever person can’t untie it.
The noblemen’s quarrels can be read on the backs of the peasants.
Don’t dig a pit for somebody to fall into , or you will end up in it yourself.
There is nothing better than a rich wife and a generous mother-in-law.
Acknowledgement is half of correction.
The river’s reputation ends where the sea begins.
I would have had no luck, if not for misfortune.
While he was sinking, he promised me an axe if I save him, but when pulled ashore , he begrudged even an axe handle.
One does not look for good when he is well.
Absentmindedness is searching for the horse you are riding.
Old age is not a blessing.
You do not need a whip to urge on an obedient horse.
It’s a crime if you get caught.
Don’t look at the teeth of a horse you’ve been given.
It is easier to bear a child once a year than to shave every day.
Debt is beautiful only after it is repaid.
Naked, but right
Repetition is the mother of learning.
If you talk to an official you must talk rubles.
Every vegetable has its time.
There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out.
On the tongue there’s honey, and on the heart there’s ice.
A sleeping fox counts chicken in his dreams.
Don’t have a friend who always agrees with you, but have a friend who argues with you.
Hang a German, even if he is a good man.
Fools are not sown or reaped, they appear by themselves.
Wolf feeds on his feet.
Your dog wishes you a long life.
What was written by a pen can’t be erased by an axe.
“Your feet are crooked, your hair is good for nothing,” said the pig to the horse.
A pessimist is a well-informed optimist.
The bird is known by its flight.
God gave, God took back.
Be fair to the devil.
Another person’s soul is in darkness.
You can’t keep a word of thanks in your pocket.
The wolf will hire himself out very cheaply as a shepherd.
It is easier to fill twenty bellies than one pair of eyes.
In Russia every day is of thirty hours.
If you don’t have a hundred rubles, make sure you have a hundred friends.
When it’s raining one doesn’t roof the cottage, and when it’s not raining the roof isn’t leaking .
Beginning is the big trouble.
If you want to be a hundred you must start young.
It’s good there, where we are not.
The Tsar has three hands but only one ear.
When we sing everybody hears us; when we sigh, nobody hears us.
Fear has big eyes.
Death answers before it is asked.
A loss is a gain for the mind.
Only he who does nothing makes no mistakes.
Don’t buy the house, buy the neighborhood.
You don’t get a headache from what other people have drunk.
Quality goods advertise themselves.
Sorrow doesn’t kill, but it blights.
He who is destined for the gallows will not be drowned.
Without a cat, mice feel free.
If God sends you meal, the devil takes the sack.
One meets greets people by their clothes, and says farewell by their mind.
Friendship is friendship, but keep our tobacco apart.
The agreement costs more than money.
The boss is always right.
An empty mill will turn without the wind.
Don’t open your mouth to eat other people’s bread.
The thief has a chicken’s heart — he sleeps in fear.
Giving gifts to the rich is like pouring water into the sea.
Ice in spring is treacherous; new friendships are seldom sure.
There’s no bad without the good.
On an empty belly every burden is heavy.
I’d like to drink honey with your lips.
Seven people don’t wait for one.
Money is like down — one puff and it’s gone.
No one is hanged who has money in his pocket.
When misers die, children open up their coffers.
A fool is not afraid to lose his mind.
Horseradish is no sweeter than radish.
Unless caught stealing , one is not a thief.
After your daughter is married, there comes a number of potential sons-in-law.
Make peace with people; wage war with your sins.
Hope for God, but do not be reliant.
Not every day is a Shrovetide, in time it will be a Lent.
A spoonful of tar spoils a barrel of honey.
Death is a giant against whom even the Tsars must draw weapons.
Fighting for your country glorifies death.
There is no smoke without fire.
The morning is wiser than the evening.
A spooked crow is afraid of a bush .
Eat bread and salt, cut the mother truth
Cut down the tree that you are able to.
The wolf spared the mare, left a tail and mane.
To know that candles are expensive is of no value to the blind man.
The person afraid of bad luck will never know good.
If you were born lucky, even your rooster will lay eggs.
In the lake of lies there are many dead fish.
A goose is not a pig’s friend.
The apple falls not so far away from the apple-tree.
Seven nannies make a kid not looked after.
Haste is good only for catching flies.
Eat until you are half full; drink until you are half drunk.
The cat with cream on her whiskers should have a good excuse ready.
When night falls the face of the wolf lights up.
The first pancake is always a failure.
A spring egg is dear at the Easter day.
Don’t be so clever; cleverer ones than you are in jail.
He makes the bed soft, yet it’s hard to sleep on .
Fortune and misfortune live in the same courtyard.
The sober man’s secret is the drunkard’s speech.
Where you saw wood, there the sawdust will fall.
A new broom sweeps in a new way.
Every day is a messenger of God.
One does not go to Tula with one’s own samovar.
Golden hands, but a wicked mouth.
Don’t worry if you borrow — worry if you lend.
Look for wind in a field.
Without effort, you can’t even pull a fish out of the pond.
Smooth hands love the labor of others.
Although there’s nothing to eat, life is fun.
A dog on hay will neither eat it himself, nor let others eat it.
Fear the goat from the front, the horse from the rear, and man from all sides.
Peace lasts until the army comes, and the army lasts until peace comes.
Extinguish the spark before the house is on fire, deflect the trouble before its strike.
A virgin’s heart is a dark forest.
Abuse doesn’t hang on the collar.
On the belly there is silk, and in the belly – just a click.
Not everything is a mermaid that dives into the water.
Better a bed of wood than a bier of gold.
One who seeks no friends is his own enemy.
No family has no ugly member.
A hammer will shatter glass yet it can forge steel.
In a fight the rich man tries to save his face, the poor man his coat.
The raven won’t peck out the eye of another.
As long as the fish swims in the water, don’t light up the grill.
When you are in a pack of hounds, you either bark or wag your tail.
Who wants heat, must endure the smoke.
Chickens are counted in autumn.
One cannot make a fur coat from thanks.
A good wife and a wholesome cabbage soup, what more could you want?
The thief makes perhaps one mistake; those he stole from made a hundred.
The horse may run quickly, but it can’t escape its own tail.
Bread doesn’t go for the belly.
The belly is like a judge that is silent yet still asks questions.
So the man, so his shadow.
There are many fathers, but only one mother.
Money is only good for a weekday, a holiday, and a rainy day.
What you plant, you will harvest.
The slower you go, the farther you will be.
Wolf in sheep’s pelt.
One’s own burden doesn’t encumber.
An old friend is better than two new ones.
If you flatter the mother, you will embrace the daughter.
We all see the same sun, but we don’t eat the same meal.
The calmer you go, the further along you will be.
An old dog can’t get used to chains.
God keeps those safe who keep themselves safe.
If the peasant doesn’t hear the thunder he won’t make the sign of the cross.
Love is like a glass that breaks if handled clumsily.
He who serves the Tsar cannot serve his people.
A soldier who doesn’t dream of becoming a general is a bad one.
When the Tsar sins the Empire must do penance.
One stupid woman recognizes another one from a distance.
It will snap where it’s thinnest.
Death does not come free of charge, for it costs us our life.
Measure seven times, cut once.
First do it, then say it.
The hearth in our house is warmer than our neighbor’s.
With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back.
One thread from everyone in the world — makes a shirt for the naked.
A thousand friends are few; one enemy is too many.
An enemy will agree, but a friend will argue.
Take a man at his word, an ox by the horns.
A wise man sees only water in the tears of a woman.
If the family is together, the soul is in the right place.
Eat what is cooked; listen to what is said.
Bragging is unlike mowing; it won’t make your back ache.
They say they milk chickens.
If one hand were the other they would both want to be clean.
I need not fear my enemies because the most they can do is attack me. I need not fear my friends because the most they can do is betray me. But I have much to fear from people who are indifferent.
Fish seek a deep place, men seek a better place.
Wine bears no blame — only the drunkard.
A toad too would like to crack nuts, but he has no teeth.
A wife should be as humble as a lamb, busy as a bee, as beautiful as a bird of paradise and faithful as a turtle dove.
Badly oiled wheels will squeak.
Ears do not grow higher than the head.
If and when mushrooms grew in the mouth, that would have been not mouth but kitchen garden.
Tambourines are good when they are behind mountains.
Conversation shortens the distance, singing lightens the load.
One glass is for health, second one is for fun, third one is for nothing.
Without the shepherd, sheep are not a flock.
Don’t blame your wife’s side if your son is cross-eyed.
What comes out of one mouth goes into a hundred others.
Only a fool will make a doctor his heir.
Who owns the bank owns the fish.
No matter how much you feed a wolf, he will always return to the forest.
To live with wolves, you have to howl like a wolf.
The eye can see it, but the tooth can’t bite it.
Cry and the whole world cries with you.
No apple tree is immune from worms.
Around bread there will always be crumbs.
With a piece of bread in your hand you’ll find paradise under a pine tree.
Don’t put it in my ear, but in my hand.
A judge and a stomach do their asking in silence.
A lonely person is at home everywhere.
Law is like the shaft of a cart, it points wherever you turn it.
Don’t be afraid of the dog who barks, but be afraid of the one, who is silent and wags its tail.
You need sharp axes for knotty trees.
Shame is worse than death.
Who talks little hears better.
If rubles fell from heaven the poor would have no bag.
A drop of water in the eyes of the Tsar costs the country many handkerchiefs.
Long whiskers cannot take the place of brains.
Bread and salt never quarrel.
What the heart doesn’t see, the eye will not see either.
When money speaks the truth is silent.
Out of sight, out of heart.
Not all who make love make marriages.
Soap is grey but it used to be white.
Seat the pig at the table, she’ll put her legs on the table.
After the head is off, one does not cry over the hair.
Poor people are crafty.
If the claw is stuck, the whole bird is lost.
The vulture embraced the chicken until its last breath.
As soon as your cart is turned over, everyone rushes to give you advice.
Never kiss an opportunity with a dirty mouth.
As long as the sun shines one does not ask for the moon.
Custom is stronger than law.
Small gifts go to places where men expect bigger ones.
There is more light than can be seen through the window.
The naked don’t fear robbery.
It doesn’t matter what the kid plays with as long as he doesn’t cry.
A rumor fills the earth.
You know a bird from the way he flies.
The nightingale can’t be fed by fables.
When gold speaks, everything else is silent.
When a girl is born all four walls weep.
You cannot build a wall with one stone.
A thief’s hat burns.
Your tongue will take you as far as Kiev.
A job feeds a man, laziness spoils him.
On a fishing lull, even a crayfish is fish , at the lack people even a lazybones is a human being .
Don’t look for a sea when you can drown in a puddle.
If you throw nettles into your neighbors garden you will find them growing in your own.
Even good dogs have fleas.
Other people’s money has sharp teeth.
If Jesus Christ comes to help me, I laugh at the angels.
Unless thunder strikes, a man won’t cross himself.
Do not spit into a well—it may be useful to drink water.
Don’t ask the old one, ask the experienced one.
Habit is second nature.
Moustaches are respected, and beards worn even by goats.
A priest’s belly is made up of several sheepskins.
Happiness is not a horse; you cannot harness it.
You would do better to sit on a powder keg than on the knee of a woman.
Confide a secret to a dumb man and he will speak.
A fisherman can tell another fisherman from afar.
You cannot buy wisdom abroad if there is none at home.
For a drunk, the sea is knee-deep
Even a cat appreciates kind words .
It is easier for the mare when a woman is off the cart..
A bachelor is never sent as a go-between.
Water does not run under a lying stone.
One can get sick of cake, but never of bread.
Your body belongs to the Tsar, your soul to God, and your back to the squire.
When you live next to the cemetery you cannot weep for everyone.
It is never winter in the land of hope.
Spending is quick, earning is slow.
Misfortune does not visit the weak-hearted.
All is well that ends well.
There’ll be a holiday in our street too.
What makes you happy, makes you rich.
What we own, we don’t keep properly ; when we lose it , we cry.
Only chained bears dance.
Work is not a wolf, it’s not going away to the forest.
The eyes are afraid, but the hands are doing the job.
The man is the flame, the woman the glow.
The poorer, the more generous.
If you don’t crack the shell, you can’t eat the nut.
Hold your children with your heart but teach them with your hands.
A stranger’s soul is like a dark forest.
When wood is chopped, woodchips will fly.
Leave the good enough in peace.
It’s better to see once than hear a hundred times.
Just because one fears wolves, is one not to go into the woods?
Don’t say “hop”, until you jumped over.
love’s evil, you’ll love even a goat.
Trouble never comes alone.
There is no honor when there is nothing to eat.
A holy place is never empty.
There are more whores in hiding than there are public ones.
Your elbow is close, yet you can’t bite it.
The person whose Grandma tells fortunes is happy.
Pray to God but continue to row to the shore.
For a big ship, a big voyage.
The cat knows whose meat it has eaten.
Beauty is the sister of idleness and the mother of luxury.

The “State Anthem of the Russian Federation” is the name of the official national anthem of Russia.

Lyrics

Russia – our sacred state,
Russia – our beloved country.
A mighty will, a great glory
Yours forever for all time!

Be glorious, our free Motherland,
Ancient union of brotherly peoples,
Ancestor-given wisdom of the people!
Be glorious, our country! We are proud of you!
From the southern seas to the polar lands

Spread are our forests and fields.
You are unique in the world, one of a kind
This native land protected by God!

Wide expanse for dreams and for living
Are opened for us by the coming years
Our loyalty to Motherland gives us strength.

So it was, so it is, and so it always will be!