- The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.
- Enjoy yourself. It may be later than you think. [Mod]
- If you don’t scale the mountain, you can’t view the plain. [After planes arrived, you can, though]
- Girls marry to please parents, widows to please themselves.
- The wind sweeping through the tower heralds a storm rising in the mountain. [Not in Denmark -]
- Not a few things at first appear difficult. [Mod]
- A rat who gnaws at a cat’s tail invites destruction.
- A mouse-catching dog steps on the cats’ paws.
- Paper can’t wrap up a fire.
- Do not tear down the east wall to repair the west.
- The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
- No wind, no waves.
- Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
- Conquerors are kings; the beaten are bandits.
- Man is heaven and earth in miniature.
- The sheep has no choice when in the jaws of the wolf.
- The best memory is not so firm as faded ink.
- Take a second look; it costs you nothing.
- When the cat is gone, the mice come out to stretch.
- Deal with the faults of others almost as gently as with your own. [Mod]
- You cannot hook trout? Try digging clams.
- How can you expect to find ivory in a dog’s mouth?
- A red-nosed man may be a teetotaller, but will find no one to believe it. ◊
- It is at times useless to mend a sinking boat in the middle of the sea. *
- Withholding truth generates fears and obsessions along the way of life. *
- Avoid suspicion: when you’re walking through your neighbour’s melon patch, don’t tie your shoe.
- Learning is like rowing upstream: not to advance is to drop back.
- Some try to fish in muddled water for their own gains. *
- Long dealings test the friend.
- No medicines can cure the vulgar man.
- A child’s life is like a piece of paper on which a passer-by leaves a mark. [Mod]
- Talk does not cook rice.
- Many a good face is under a ragged hat.
- Flies never get into an egg that has no crack. *
- Just as tall trees are known by their shadows, so can good men be known by their enemies.
- Among ten matchmakers only nine will lie.
- Deer-hunter, waste not your arrow on the hare.
- Once a tree falls, the monkeys on it will scatter.
- Keep your broken arm inside your sleeve.
- It only takes three winks to get degraded. *
- He who plays with fire may become its victim.
- One dog snarls at a shadow, and a hundred fall in to howl and bark barking. *
- Some prefer carrot while others like cabbage.
- Distant water won’t quench your immediate thirst.
- Offer help where help is needed. *
- Laws control the lesser man; right conduct controls the greater one.
- Plan your year in the early spring, your day at dawn.
- Those who do not study are only cattle dressed up in men’s clothes.
- One cannot refuse to eat just because there is a chance of being choked.
- You want no one to know it? Then don’t do it.
- The one who plants the tree is not the one who will enjoy its shade.
- You won’t help shoots grow by pulling them up higher. ◊
- A clumsy bird that flies first will get to the forest earlier.
- Be not disturbed at being misunderstood; be disturbed at not understanding.
- Dripping water can eat through a stone.
- It is easy to dodge a spear that comes in front of you but hard to keep harms away from an arrow shot from behind.
- Right skills may be your inexhaustible treasures, keeping you from hunger in most fields of life. *
- The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.
- The delicacy of the feast is the learned guest.
- Ruthlessness is a key to a man’s solid accomplishment. *
- If all contribute their firewood they may build up a strong fire.
- The happiness in your pocket, don’t spend it all.
- Don’t build a new ship out of old wood.
- Look for a thing until you find it and you’ll not lose your labour.
- Easier to know men’s faces than their hearts. [Mod]
- Falling hurts least those who fly low.
- Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come.
- Rich men accumulate money; the poor accumulate years.
- One cannot manage too many affairs; like pumpkins in water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.
- The best soldiers are not warlike.
- Dead song-birds make a sad meal.
- Of a dead animal we may keep the skin, of man his reputation. [Mod]
- The less power a man has, the more he likes to use it.
- Dig a well before you are thirsty.
- Yellow gold is plentiful compared to white-haired friends.
- Govern a family as you would cook a small fish–very gently.
- Rein in a horse at the edge of a cliff, if not earlier. *
- Weaving a net is better than praying for fish at the edge of the water.
- The diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor the man perfected without trials.
- Clumsy birds have need of early flight.
- When you drink the water, remember the spring.
- Trying to put out a fire while holding firewood is not recommended. *
- Judge not the horse by his saddle.
- The man who does not learn is like one walking in the night.
- The rose has thorns only for those who would gather it.
- A jade stone is useless before it is processed; a man is good-for-nothing until he is educated.
- The weasel comes to say “Happy New Year!” to the chickens.
- One happiness scatters a thousand sorrows.
- Crowded is the dark road to hell.
- Abroad we judge the dress; at home we judge the man – or woman.
- Read critically and you may find each saying worth a thousand ounces of gold. *
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