Chinese proverbs
Traditional saying. The library holds 64 of them. Here are the 60 most quoted; search the library in the maker for the rest.
Often about: wisdom, nature, work, family, success, character
The 60 best known
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To stop the hand is the way to stop the mouth.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
To excite a fierce dog to capture a lame rabbit is to attack a contemptible enemy.
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Resolution is independent of great age, but without it one lives a hundred years in vain.
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A foolish husband fears his wife; a prudent wife obeys her husband.
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Do not anxiously expect what is not yet come; do not vainly regret what is already past.
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It is not easy to stop the fire when the water is at a distance; friends at hand are better than relations afar off.
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One roof and two winds—i. e., persons of opposite tempers living together.
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One never needs his wit so much as when he argues with a fool.
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Do not consider any vice as trivial, and therefore practise it; do not consider any virtue as unimportant, and therefore neglect it.
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Good fortune is a benefit to the wise, but a curse to the foolish.
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A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.
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There are plenty acquaintances in the world, but very few real friends.
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Those who cause dissensions in order to injure other people are preparing pitfalls for their own ruin.
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Worldly fame and pleasure are destructive to the virtue of the mind; anxious thoughts and apprehensions are injurious to the health of the body.
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A bird can roost but on one branch; a mouse can drink no more than its fill from a river.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
The dog in the kennel barks at his fleas; the dog that hunts does not feel them.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as the hollow mountain returns all sounds.
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When the man of a naturally good propensity has much wealth it injures his advancement in wisdom; when a worthless man has much wealth it increases his faults.
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Let every man sweep the snow from before his own doors, and not busy himself about the frost on his neighbour’s tiles.
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For the sake of one good action a hundred evil actions should be condoned.
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What is told in the ear, is often heard a hundred miles off.
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Water and protect the root; Heaven will watch the flower and fruit.
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A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child.
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The fame of good men’s actions seldom goes beyond their own doors, but their evil deeds are carried a thousand miles’ distance.
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Modesty is attended with profit, arrogance brings on destruction.
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The best thing is to be respected, the next, is to be loved; it is bad to be hated, but still worse to be despised.
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By nature all men are alike, but by education very different.
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The doctrine that enters only into the ear is like the repast one takes in a dream.
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As the sun’s shadow shifts, so there is no permanence on earth.
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If people take no care for the future, they will soon have sorrow for the present.
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Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, rouses the flock to fly and follow.
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In learning, age and youth go for nothing; the best informed take the precedence.
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He who pursues an idle wish But climbs a tree to catch a fish.
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To climb a tree to catch a fish is talking much and doing nothing.
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A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of the child.
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The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
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Riches come better after poverty than poverty after riches.
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Respect for one’s parents is the highest of the duties of civil life.
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Unsullied poverty is always happy, while impure wealth brings with it many sorrows.
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The man of worth is really great without being proud; the mean man is proud without being really great.
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A grave and a majestic exterior is the palace of the soul.
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Who is the greatest liar? He that talks most of himself.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one.
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The man of first rate excellence is virtuous in spite of instruction; he of the middle class is so after instruction; the lowest order of men are vicious in spite of instruction.
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Old age and faded flowers, no remedies can revive.
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It is easy to open a shop, but hard to keep it open.
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If families have no sons devoted to letters, whence are the governors of the people to come?
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The acts of this life are the destiny of the next.
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When the tree is felled, its shadows disappear.
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He who toils with pain will eat with pleasure.
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Exaggeration is to paint a snake and add legs.
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An oil-jar can be used again for nothing but oil.
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A man of sense talks little, and listens much.
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A pearl is often hidden in an ugly shell.
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With time a mulberry leaf becomes satin.
translated by Walter K. Kelly -
Strive not too anxiously for thy support, thy Maker will provide. No sooner is a man born, than milk for his support streams from the breast.
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Who swallows quick, can chew but little.
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No duns outside, and no doctors within.
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Towers are measured by their shadows.
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Ivory does not come from a rat’s mouth.