Rodgers Dictionary of Proverbs
To a man wine is like water is to the boat; it
can carry him or guzzle him up.
To a person who has real shame, words are
oath.
To a physician a sick man is a garden.
To a quick ear half a word.
To a quick question, give a slow answer.
To a rogue a rogue and a half.
To a seamen of Kwale, death by water is
common experience.
To a son-in-law and a hog you need show
the way but once.
To a starving man bread is sweeter than
honey.
To a tendai monk, everything is wonderful.
To a weaving that has begun, God sends
threads.
To a woman and a magpie tell your secrets
in the marketplace.
To a woman, a man is beautiful in the
pocket.
To a young heart everything is sport.
To accuse lingomba [a kind of bird] for the
death of a snake that died a long time
ago. (to accuse someone for the mistakes
made by others before him)
To act in anger is like tying up a ship in a
storm.
To act sincerely with the insincere is
dangerous.
To advise is easier than to help.
To advise is not to compel.
To an earthenware dish a wooden spoon.
To an optimist every weed is a flower; to a
pessimist every flower is a weed.
To appear and not to be is like weaving and
not making cloth.
To ask a favor from a miser is like trying to
make a hole in water.
To ask is a temporary shame; not to ask, an
eternal one.
To ask is no sin, and to be refused is no
calamity.
To ask is not foolishness; it is the desire to
hear fully.
To assume is to be deceived.
To attract good fortune, spend a new coin
on an old friend, share an old pleasure
with a new friend, and lift up the heart
of a true friend by writing his name on
the wings of a dragon.
To bait and to grease does not retard a
journey.
To be a fool at the right time is also an art.
To be a fool at the right time is an art.
To be a hero hang on for a minute longer.
To be a merchant, the art consists more in
getting paid than in making sales.
To be a public man is slavery.
To be a smart man you need to be humble.
To be able to curse once a day improves
happiness and lengthens life.
To be able to love other people you must be
able to love yourself.
To be an ancestral believer is to be a good
ancestor.
To be away is well and good, but home is
where the heart is.
To be born with a silver spoon in the mouth.
To be crawling with ants (to have pins and
needles).
To be drunk every day is also a regular life.
To be for one day entirely at leisure is to be
for one day an immortal.
To be good tends to give absence later on.
To be human is easy, to be a human being is
difficult.
To be in bed and sleep not, to want for one
who comes not, to try to please and
please not.
To be in love and act wisely is scarcely
granted to a god.
To be in love is to feel the sun from both
sides.
To be laughed at by men is not to be wept
by hyenas.
To be laughed at is not to be pitied.
To be like the esquire of Guadalaxara, who
knew nothing in the morning of what he
said at night.
To be like the tailor of Campillo, who
worked for nothing, and found thread.
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