African Proverbs
There is no medicine to cure hatred.
A spider’s cobweb isn’t only its sleeping spring but also its food trap.
He who runs after good fortune runs away from peace.
The young bird does not crow until it hears the old ones.
A chattering bird builds no nest.
Where water is the boss there the land must obey.
You have little power over what’s not yours.
The child you sired hasn’t sired you.
Be a mountain or lean on one.
The death of an elderly man is like a burning library.
The night has ears.
Better little than too little.
Anger and madness are brothers.
For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.
An orphaned calf licks its own back.
When you show the moon to a child, it sees only your finger.
He who learns, teaches.
A good deed is something one returns.
It is not work that kills, but worry.
Even the best cooking pot will not produce food.
If your only tool is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail.
A family is like a forest, when you are outside it is dense, when you are inside you see that each tree has it’s place.
Don’t set sail on someone else’s star.
If you climb up a tree, you must climb down the same tree.
If you run after two hares you will catch neither.
The child of a rat is a rat.
It is not what you are called, but what you answer to.
To try and to fail is not laziness.
If you offend, ask for a pardon; if offended forgive.
If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.
A child is a child of everyone.
Even the lion, the king of the forest, protects himself against flies.
Seeing is different than being told.
A cutting word is worse than a bowstring, a cut may heal, but the cut of the tongue does not.
Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.
When a needle falls into a deep well, many people will look into the well, but few will be ready to go down after it.
Birds sing not because they have answers but because they have songs.
If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for something.