Chinese proverbs

O eggs, never fight with stones!

Man fools himself. He prays for a long life and he fears old age.

Learning is treasure no thief can touch.

Just as tall trees are known by their shadows, so are good men known by their enemies.

If there is a strong general, there will be no weak soldiers.

Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Despise learning and make everyone pay for your ignorance.

Cheap things are not good, good things are not cheap.

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

A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials.

A day of sorrow is longer than a month of joy.

Patience is a bitter plant, but it has sweet fruit.

It is the beautiful bird which gets caged.

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

The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth.

One dog barks at something, the rest bark at him.

Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.

Illness comes in by mouth; ills come out by it.

A hundred men may make an encampment, but it takes a woman to make a home.

A rat who gnaws at a cat’s tail invites destruction. ~Chinese proverb

A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

He who strikes the first blow admits he’s lost the argument.

A bit of fragrance clings to the hand that gives flowers.

To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

When you drink the water, remember the spring.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

Don’t open a shop unless you like to smile.

A smile will gain you ten more years of life.

Do good, reap good; do evil, reap evil.

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

A book tightly shut is but a block of paper.

A wicked book cannot repent.

A book holds a house of gold.

Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.

A nation’s treasure is in its scholars.

Looking for fish? Don’t climb a tree.

One cannot manage too many affairs; like pumpkins in water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.

Do not remove a fly from your friend’s forehead with a hatchet.

Once bitten by a snake, you are even frightened by a rope that resembles a snake.

Man cannot stir one inch without the push of heaven’s finger.

If you are standing upright, don’t worry if your shadow is crooked.

Better go to heaven in rags than to hell in embroidery.

Of a dead leopard we keep the skin, of man his reputation.

Have but few friends though much acquaintance.

A person who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the man doing it.

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

He who is drowned is not troubled by the rain.

A fool judges people by the presents they give him.

Each generation will reap what the former generation has sown.

A young doctor makes a full graveyard.

Grass fears the frost, frost fears the sun.

A filthy mouth will not utter decent language.

Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom.

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.

If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it.

If you want to know your past — look into your present conditions.

What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others.

Life is an echo; what you send out comes back.

If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.

Man has a thousand plans, heaven but one.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Govern yourself and you can govern the world.

Learning is better than house and land.

Hatred corrodes the vessel in which it is stored.

All things at first appear difficult.

He who seeks vengeance must dig two graves: one for his enemy and one for himself.

Four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.

Don’t waste too many stones on one bird.

Nature, time and patience are the three great physicians.

To open a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Manners maketh man.

O man, you who do not live a hundred years, why fret a thousand minutes?

Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends whom we choose.

A bad workman blames his tools.

Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.

If you don’t go into the cave of the tiger, how are you going to get its cub?

Past scholars studied to improve themselves; Today’s scholars study to impress others.

An inch of time is an inch of gold, but you can’t buy that inch of time with an inch of gold.

Seeing it once is better than being told 100 times.

A man’s conversation is the mirror of his thoughts.

Mallet strikes chisel; chisel splits wood.

Dogs have so many friends because they wag their tails, not their tongues.

Pick the flower when it is ready to be picked.

A bad worker quarrels with his tools.

No wisdom like silence.

Easy to know men’s faces, not their hearts.

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

Be not disturbed at being misunderstood; be disturbed at not understanding.

A good neighbor is a found treasure.

If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.

If you always give, you will always have.

A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles.

Far waters cannot quench near fires.

Learn to handle a writing-brush and you’ll never handle a begging-bowl.

It’s as difficult to be rich without bragging as it is to be poor without complaining.

Rats know the way of rats.

Easy to run downhill, much puffing to run up.

A dog won’t forsake his master because of poverty; a son never deserts his mother because of her homely appearance.

Count not what is lost but what is left.

Habits are cobwebs at first, cables at last.

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

Flowing water never goes bad; our door hubs never gather termites.

If there is beauty in character, there will be harmony in the home.

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.

Know thyself to know others, for heart beats like heart.

Just scales and full measure injure no man.

Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come.

It takes little effort to watch a man carry a load.

No matter how tall the mountain, it cannot block out the sun.

One generation plants the trees, another gets the shade.

If you get up one more time than you fall you will make it through.

One step at a time is good walking.

Pleasures are shallow, sorrows deep.

Love is blind.

Pure gold does not fear the smelter.

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