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•    Strong who conquers the opponent, even stronger who rises again. -13th Century proverb

•    A man has a choice to begin love, but not end it.

•    God defend me from my friends, from my enemies I can defend myself.

•    Measure twice, cut once.
- Carpenter's Maxim

•    Never look at the Brass, it only encourages them.
- Conductor's Axiom

•    You can't get pinned down when you are on top.
- Wrestler's Maxim

•    Let the gods avenge themselves.
- Roman law maxim, on blasphemy

AFGHAN
•    He who can be killed with sugar should not be killed with poison.

AFRICAN
•    One volunteer is better than ten forced men.

•    Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors.

•    Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet.

•    Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.

•    When two elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled.

ALBANIAN
•    Every guest hates the others, and the host hates them all.

•    If you lend you either lose the money or gain an enemy.

•    Fire, water, and government know nothing of mercy.

AMERICAN
•    Never swap horses while crossing a stream.

•    To understand a man you must walk in his shoes.

•    Love many, hate few, learn to paddle your own canoe.

AMERICAN-INDIAN
•    Bury the hatchet, but don’t forget where you buried it.

•    Don’t judge a man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins.

ARABIAN
•    He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.

•    When you have spoken the word, it reigns over you. When it is unspoken you reign over it.

•    Trust in Allah, but tie your camel.

•    If the camel once gets his nose in a tent, his body will soon follow.

•    The willing contemplation of vice is vice.

•    He who sees the calamity of other people finds his own calamity light.

•    Silence is medication for sorrow.

ARMENIAN
•    We pay dearly for experience that we could have cheaply from our neighbour.

BRITISH
•    Faults are thick where love is thin.

BULGARIAN
•    You are permitted in times of great danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge.

BURMAN
•    Only with the new ruler you realise the nature of the old.

CHINESE

• A man without a smiling face should not open a shop.

•    The palest ink is better than the best memory.

•    If a little does not go much cash won’t come in.

•    Blessings never come in pairs, misfortunes never come alone.

•    A fool judges people by the presents they give him.

•    Better be too credulous than too sceptical.

•    With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.

•    Never answer a letter while you are angry.

•    It is not wise to leap a chasm in two bounds.

•    Life is a search for the truth; there is no truth.

•    Dig the well before you are thirsty.

•    The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

•    To prophesy is extremely difficult - especially with respect to the future.

•    The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns yourself more than him.

•    The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

•    When Heaven sends down calamities
There is hope of weathering them;
When man brings them down himself
There is no hope of escape.

•    Learning is a treasure which accompanies its owner everywhere.

•    It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

•    Do not fear going forward slowly, fear only to stand still.

•    If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.

•    He who catches plenty of fish know where to throw the line.

•    In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone's letter.

•    When the wise man points to the moon, the idiot looks at the finger.

•    Swords and guns have no eyes.

•    The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

•    To understand your parents' love, bear your own children.

•    Judge not the horse by his saddle.

•    A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood.

•    A book is a garden carried in the pocket.

•    He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes.

•    If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.

•    Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense.

•    Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.

•    When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.

•    Water and words, easy to pour, impossible to recover.

•    Keep a green tree in your heart and a singing bird will come.

•    Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

•    If you are planning for one year, grow rice. If you are planning for 20 years, grow trees. If you are planning for centuries, grow men.

•    Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.

•    An army of thousands is easy to find, but, ah, how difficult to find a general.

•    A bit of perfume always clings to the hand that gives the rose.

•    The soul has no secrets that conduct does not reveal.

•    If there is no wind, row.

•    Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think.

•    Avoid suspicion: when you're walking through your neighbor's melon patch, don't tie your shoe.

•    To hear is to forget, to see is to remember, to do is to understand.

•    The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.

•    There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth.

•    Each generation will reap what the former generation has sown.

•    A child’s life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark.

•    When you drink the water, remember the spring.

•    There are two perfect men : one dead, and the other unborn.

•    Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated.

•    Men trip not on mountains, they stumble on stones.

•    Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

•    Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend’s forehead.

•    If you always give, you will always have.

•    Patience is power.

•    Govern by doing nothing that goes against nature.

•    A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

•    Going beyond is as bad as falling short.

•    The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.

•    A diamond with a flaw is better than a common stone that is perfect.

•    Art should not reproduce what we see. It should make us see.

•    Learning is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.

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Czech proverbs:

• When you go to buy use your eyes, not your ears.

• It is not the thief who is hanged but one who was caught stealing.

• Misfortunes always come in by the door that has been left open for them.

• It’s better to utter a lie that heals, than a truth that wounds.

• The infinite is a square without corners.

• Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends.

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DANISH
•    Better to ask twice than to lose your way once.

•    The road to a friend’s house is never long.

•    He who would leap high must take a long run.

•    He who is ashamed of asking, is ashamed of learning.

DUTCH
•    A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.

•    Our faults irritate us most when we see them in others.

•    No one can have peace longer then his neighbour pleases.

•    Men can bear all things except good days.

ENGLISH
•    One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.

•    All is fair in love and war.

•    A burnt child dreads the fire.

•    A fool and his money are soon parted.

•    It is easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar.

•    There are as good fish in the sea as came out of it.

•    It takes two to make a bargain.

•    It's a bad bargain where nobody gains.

•    Still water runs deep.

•    Haste makes waste.

•    Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

•    You may lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

•    Fools build houses and wise men buy them.

•    He that lives in glass house must not throw stones.

•    You can't get blood out of a turnip.

•    You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

•    Many a true word is spoken in jest.

•    God tempers the wind to the shorn lands.

•    He laughs best who laughs last.

•    A lawyer's opinion is nothing unless paid for.

•    A friend in need is a friend indeed.

•    Desperate diseases require desperate remedies.

•    Despair doubles our strength.

•    Too many cooks spoil the broth.

•    Two's a company, three's a crowd.

•    Children should be seen and not heard.

•    Spare the rod and spoil the child.

•    When the cat's away the mice will play.

•    Who keeps company with a wolf will learn to howl.

•    Better die a beggar than live a beggar.

•    When the wine is in, the wit is out.

•    Many things are lost for want of asking.

•    They love too much that die for love.

•    The pleasure of love lasts but a moment. The pain of love lasts a lifetime.

•    He that plants trees loves others besides himself.

•    The noisiest drum has nothing in it but air.

•    God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.

•    Danger and delight grow on one stalk.

•    A full cup must be carried steadily.

•    Write down the advice of him who loves you, though you like it not at present.

•    A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder.

ESKIMO
•    May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart.

ESTONIAN
•    He who does not than for little will not thank for much.

ETHIOPIAN
•    When spider webs unite they can tie up a lion.

FILIPINO
•    A fly that lands on a carabao feels itself to be higher than the carabao.

FINNISH
•    Even a small star shines in the darkness.

FRENCH
•    A father is a banker provided by nature.

•    Whoever profits by the crime is guilty of it.

•    There's no pillow as soft as clear conscience.

•    Gratitude is the heart’s memory.

•    Write injuries in sand, kindness in marble.

•    People count up the faults of those who keep them waiting.

•    He that eats till he is sick must fast till he is well.

•    I know by own pot how others boil.

•    With enough 'ifs' we could put Paris in a bottle.

•    Love teaches even asses to dance.

•    A lie travels round the world while truth is putting her boots on.

•    There is no such thing as a pretty good omelette.

•    Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume.

GERMAN
•    The best carpenters make the fewest chips.

•    Speech is silver; silence is golden.

•    Even the lion has to defend himself against flies.

•    The butcher looked for his knife, when he had it in his mouth.

•    The eyes believe themselves; the ears believe other people.

•    Old love rusts not.

•    Where might is a master, justice is a servant.

•    Envy eats nothing but its own heart.

•    When a dove begins to associate with crows, its feathers remain white but its heart grows black.

•    He who has once burnt his mouth always blows the soup.

•    Everyone thinks that all the bells echo his own thoughts.

•    Charity sees the need not the cause.

•    Promises are like the full moon: if they are not kept at once they diminish day by day.

•    A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.

GREEK
•    Grey hair is a sign of age, not of wisdom.

•    Swift gratitude is the sweetest.

•    The heart that loves is always young.

•    Men know how to flatter; few understand how to give praise.

•    A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

HINDI
•    He who cannot dance puts the blame on the floor.

HINDU
•    There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. True nobility is being superior to your former self.

HUNGARIAN
•    The wife of a careless man is almost a widow.

•    Who is feared by many, fears many.

•    The believer is happy; the doubter is wise.

IGBO
•    God gives each person a hook with which to pluck his fruit.

INDIAN
•    Those who hunt deers sometimes raise tigers.

•    When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him.

•    Whether the knife falls on the melon, or the melon on the knife, the melon suffers.

•    No one’s head aches when he is comforting another.

IRANIAN
•    Answer fools with silence.

IRISH
•    God made time, but man made haste.

•    A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book.

•    God often pays debts without money.

IROQUOIS
•    In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.

ITALIAN
•    Other times, other customs.

•    God save you from a bad neighbour and from a beginner on the fiddle.

•    A white glove often conceals a dirty hand.

•    Bed is the poor man's opera.

•    A calamity that affects everyone is only half a calamity.

•    If the secret sorrows of everyone could be read on their forehead, how many who now cause envy would suddenly become the objects of pity.

•    Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

JAMAICAN
•    Before you marry, keep two eyes open; after you marry, shut one.

JAPANESE
•    The beautiful woman can destroy surely as the ox.

•    Don’t take a gilded sword to cut a radish.

•    Better the arrow pierce your breast than your back.

•    The nail that sticks up will be hammered down.

•    He is poor who does not feel content.

•    The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.

•    One kind word can warm three winter months.

•    Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.

•    Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

JEWISH
•    Soldiers fight and kings are heroes.

•    What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul.

•    He who cannot endure the bad will not live to see the good.

•    If you are bitter at heart, sugar in the mouth will not help you.

KURDISH
•    Kind words can unlock an iron door.

LATIN
•    Make haste slowly.

•    An army of stags led by a lion would be better than an army of lions led by a stag.

•    The clothes make the man.

•    A man is not where he lives, but where he loves.

•    Fashion is more powerful than any tyrant.

LEBANESE
•    Lower your voice and strengthen your argument.

MALAY
•    One can pay back the loan of gold, but one dies forever in debt to those who are kind.

•    Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.

MOROCCAN
•    None but a mule denies his family.

NAVAJO
•    You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.

•    If you are not living on the edge, you’re taking too much space.

•    Many tongues - one eye.

NEAPOLITAN
•    Who is born square will not die round.

NIGERIAN
•    Two hundred cattle are under one stick, but two hundred human beings are under two hundred sticks.

•    When the mouse laughs at the cat there is a hole nearby.

•    The fly cannot be driven away by getting angry at it.

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North-American proverbs:

• The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.

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OLD ENGLISH
•    When I did well, I heard it never;
When I did ill, I heard it ever.

OLD SAYING
•    Revenge is a dish best served cold.

PERSIAN
•    There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.

•    Epigrams succeed where epics fail.

•    Doubt is the key to knowledge.

•    If the teacher is corrupt, the world will be corrupt.

POLISH
•    A man in a passion rules a wild horse.

•    Love enters a man through his eyes, woman her ears.

•    Love is sweet, but tastes best with bread.

PORTUGUESE

• There is a remedy for everything; it is called death.

PROVERBS (THE BIBLE)
•    A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.

ROMAN
•    If you don't know where you are going all roads lead there.

ROMANIAN
•    A married man must shed many skins before he outgrows the bachelor in him.

RUSSIAN
•    A sleeping fox counts hens in his dreams.

•    There was never a saint with red hair.

•    Clever father, clever daughter; clever mother, clever son.

•    Don't buy the house; buy the neighbour.

•    Books are often wiser than their readers.

•    Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.

•    When money speaks the truth is silent.

•    Men show their superiority inside; animals outside.

•    Necessity turns a lion into a fox.

•    Slander, like camel, will either dirty your hand or burn it.

•    A spoken word flies; you won’t catch it.

•    The tears of strangers are only water.

RWANDAN
•    You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you.

SCOTTISH
•    Better bend than break.

•    Open confessions is good for the soul.

•    Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead.

•    Money is flat and meant to be piled up.

•    Friends are lost by calling often and calling seldom.

•    Never marry for money. You’ll borrow it cheaper.

SENEGALESE
•    The opportunity that God sends does not wake up him who is asleep.

SERBIAN
•    Good deeds are the best prayer.

SHAKER
•    Trifles make perfection, but perfection itself is no trifle.

SICILIAN
•    Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.

SLOVENIAN
•    Speak the truth, but leave immediately after.

SPANISH
•    Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables.

•    There's no thing as a poor wedding and a rich funeral.

•    Drink nothing without seeing it, sign nothing without reading it.

•    When a person who never flatters you suddenly discovers all of your qualities, he either wants to con you or he needs something from you.

•    Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get.

•    A lean dog gets nothing but fleas.

•    The owl thinks all her young ones beauties.

•    Three too muches and three too littles can destroy a foolish man: too much spending and too little money, too much talking and too little knowing, too much bragging and too little worth.

•    He who dines with arrogance sleeps with shame.

•    He who never doubts doesn’t know anything.

•    A forewarned man is worth two.

•    No revenge is more honorable than the one not taken.

•    An ounce of matter is worth a pound of clergy.

•    Two great talkers will not travel far together.

•    Never advise anyone to go to war or to marry.

•    A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.

•    No revenge is more honourable than the one not taken.

•    Every cask smells of the wine it contains.

•    How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.

SUFI
•    The universe is a great man, and man is a little universe.

SURINAM
•    All ears hear very well when promise are being made.

SWAHILI
•    Treat your guest for two days; on the third day, give him a hoe.

SWEDISH
•    Luck never gives; it only lends.

•    Those who wish to sing always find a song.

•    Fear less, hope more;
Whine less, breathe more;
Talk less, say more;
Hate less, love more;
And all good things are yours.

• Experience is not the kindest of teachers, but it is certainly the best.

• God gives every bird his worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.

TURKISH

• The devil tempts all other men, but idle men tempt the devil.

• No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.

• A small key opens big doors.

WELSH
•    Praise the wise man behind his back, but a woman to her face.

WEST ASIAN
•    Work slowly. All you can ever come to is yourself.

YIDDISH
•    If you want your dreams to come true, don't sleep.

•    Don’t approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back or a fool from any side.

•    An angry man is not fit to pray.

•    Life is the biggest bargain. We get it for nothing.

•    He who can’t endure the bad will not live to see the good.

•    To a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.

•    A man is not old until his regrets take the place of dreams.

•    If the rich could hire other people to die for them, the poor could make a wonderful living.

ZEN
•    No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.

•    Develop an infallible technique and then place yourself at the mercy of inspiration.